Welcome to the Real World
by lawless priest
Summary: Strange things start happening to the young Ikari after the 12th but worrying about his sanity as well might soon be the least of his problems. EVAMATRIX crossover
1. just another dream

AN: This is a Matrix/EVA fanfiction, but that's where it ends. Expect nothing from the movies... this fic will not follow the script. It uses the ideas and concepts of the Matrix universe and applies them to the world of Angels and Evas. Oh and I don't own either of them. There will be very little OCC in this so don't fert. Shinji will be Shinji and not some super god with his name./An

/priest/

/Welcome to the Real World/

- lawless priest -

0.0 - a fever dream

It was a rather normal, quiet, peaceful day. A Sunday, the beginning of a new week, offering promise and optimism for the hopeful. Birds sang their songs uninterrupted. The sun shown it's rays down on the dawning world with its usual magnificent and all was in order.

"Misato, Asuka, Rei! Somebody help!"

Yes, all was in order. For one young boy the pain he was about to face would be nothing abnormal. Just another day at the job.

Helicopters flew overhead, their armaments trained and waiting readily on the being sent to end their existence. The pilots knew without a doubt that their weapons would have no effect on the creature beneath, terrorizing their city. Only weapons as powerful as it could compete against such a being. And some found it fairly disturbing that said weapons could only be piloted by children.

The scene most have seemed rather ironic to them, as they, with their perfect view, hovered above, unable to assist even as they had to witness the defeat of one of their only hopes of salvation.

And all some of them could think of was that he was only just a boy and a good kid at that. Their near crushing shame was also a normal feat in their line of work as each prayed to an angry god for the safety of the purple mecha's pilot.

Said pilot or baka depending on who you were talking to, screamed out over the com unit again, its panicked frequency reaching their ears, filling their hearts with guilt and frustration at their inadequacy.

He was falling, sinking further and further into the endless black shadow of the 12th Angel. The young boy saw the flying crafts as they circled above him like vultures, the scream of their passing calling out his funeral dirge. He thought it strange that he could have such an abstract thought even as he sank to his death with no alternative plan of action.

Frankly it was fairly disheartening.

The Angel's true shadow floated briefly above him, mocking his attempts on its life before fading out of existence as if it was no more real than a childish illusion, like his father ever actually showing him respect. All around him he could see the city and its skylines falling into the trap that he himself had set off, falling deeper into the illusion.

Buildings, cars, street signs, it didn't matter, they all sank unattended beneath the black waves as did he himself. His legs were already gone and soon his body would follow.

"I can't move! I'm stuck, my EVA is stuck!" Shinji Ikari, the Third child, stretched his hand forth as he cried out for support even with the deep sated knowledge that there was nothing Nerv command could do.

So, like every dying man with no hope in his decidedly short future, he aimed his hand high, reaching toward the seemingly unforgiving heavens, almost as if he was trying to claw his way back to safety with only the clouds as his hand holds.

Considering the past miracles that he had experienced, this wasn't as much of a far fetched plan as it seemed. And with the current state of the world, it was almost as if the heavens owed humanity for the injustices they were going through and that continuing to save the life of one of its few saviors was their way of evening the odds.

But unfortunately, today that was not the case.

"Shinji-kun!"

"What's the point in scoring good on the test if you can't survive real life?"

More noise filtered through his comm unit, but none of it was relevant as Unit 01 sank beneath the growing black pit of the shadowed 12th Angel with no hope of returning.

And it was there, in the endless space between worlds, that Shinji Ikari saw the world for what it truly was and the beginning of a new era began.

01 - just another dream

"_AT Field detected. Blue pattern confirmed."_

"_It's right beneath Unit 01!"_

"_Unit 01 is sinking into the Angel's shadow."_

"_Shinji get out of there!"_

"_Misato, Asuka, Rei! Somebody help!"_

"_Shinji-kun!"_

"SOMEBODY HELP!"

"Oh, shut up, you Baka!" A rather irate red head screamed at my bed ridden self.

"Asuka?" My sleep fogged mind tried to reason out the other girls presence in my private space, but it was coming up with blanks.

"What are doing in my room? Wait, this isn't my room?"

"Wow, your amazing detective skills have proven to be far more astonishing than I had figured for a stooge. It took you only about, forever to notice that."

"Um, Asuka?"

"What, Third?

"Why am I in the hospital?"

"Oh don't you give me that crap, Ikari. I know you remember what happened with that Angel." She shuddered slightly and I figured that couldn't have boded well in terms of how well the mission went.

"Well, not really, but since you're here, I bet you and Ayanami beat it, or probably just you, right?" I threw that last bit out knowing that her pride would keep her off my back. I had just woken up from a particularly disturbing nightmare to not only wake up to another but in a rather embarrassing way. I needed what little time I could get to get myself readjusted.

But that didn't seem to be about to happen any time soon.

"Wrong Third. I didn't get the chance to because 'somebody' had to just go and rip the thing apart from the inside out." She said all of this with her nose directly in my face and since I already had my back to the wall there wasn't anywhere else for me to go which didn't do much for my already unstable nerves.

"I know you remember, so don't you give me that stupid look like you have no clue what I'm talking about!"

"Yelling at him will not help him to recall what happened with the 12th, Sohryu."

'Was that Ayanami?' And it was, sitting in the chair across the room with a book in hand. Her disturbing or alluring, depending on who you were talking to, eyes were glued to my own, the girl's attention never wavering. It was enough to distract me from the previously fuming red head.

"And who asked you Wonder girl. Mindless dolls shouldn't talk until spoken to." and who apparently was still fuming. I was not expecting that both Asuka and Rei would visit me in my hospital room. That was surely a first of firsts.

"As I have told you before, I am not a doll, Second."

"Whatever, but you had better not get fresh with me again Wonder girl, or you'll regret it." The German girl replied back as she stormed out of the room. I had to admit that I was a little taken back that I hadn't noticed that Rei was there at all, but then again Asuka's overwhelming presence pretty much, well, overwhelmed her's. Of course the fact that I had just woken up didn't do wonders for my receptive abilities.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that, Rei." I told the girl with a sheepish hand scratching my back.

"Why do you apologize Ikari-kun? You are not Sohryu. You have done nothing to offend me. Here." She said as she handed me a cup of water. "You have been asleep for three days now. Your throat is most likely parched."

'Three days? I've been in bed for three days? What could have happened during the last attack?' I couldn't help but wonder. I had never been hurt for that long before. Something really bad must have happened.

Taking the offered beverage in hand I would have given some weak reply or thanks, but what I was seeing before me effectively took away my ability to form coherent thoughts, let alone any possible string of words to help express myself.

The cup I held was like any other one of its make, with no adverse diversifying aspects apparent other than the small specks of peculiar looking green computer code running through it, making small gaps in the rather nominal ceramic surface.

I couldn't explain what I was seeing and I couldn't help but lean in closer, believing that my eyes had betrayed me.

'What is that? This can't be real? Can it?"

Rei watched me from her position across the room as I stared intently at the offered cup of water, probably wondering what about it could hold my rapt attention so. Hopefully she wasn't thinking that I distrusted her intentions because she had failed to offer me any assistance in the last battle? Or perhaps that it was the make of the cup itself that held my appeal or disapproval?

Who really know what went on in the gorgeous head of Rei Ayanami, but at the time I was not truly concerned with these thoughts.

And so I guess, Rei being the curious little angel that she was, she too leaned in closer to get a better understanding of the object that held such a profound significance to me.

"Ikari-kun?"

"Yes, Rei?"

"What are you staring at?"

"The cup."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"OK, this is a not what I was expecting. I didn't know you two were so close now. Maybe I should leave and give you two a little more time to be alone?" Misato Katsuragi stood in the doorway looking in on us two young pilots.

It was around then that I noticed just how close my and Rei's faces had gotten. I was practically about to kiss her! Was I possibly so wrapped up the cup that I had forgotten the world around me? How long was I staring at that thing. It was just a cup of water, right? I looked back at it again, and there was nothing there that was unusual. Just a cup. Nothing strange.

"Um, Misato its not what you think! We were just, um..."

"Ikari-kun was very interested in the cup I gave him. We were studying its contents."

Misato stood there a bit lost. I'm sure she was trying to get around the non-existent, yet only in her mind, sexual innuendos. She should have known better. Rei wouldn't say anything like that.

"Um… ok. Anyway, Ritsuko says besides maybe a slight head ache, you should be alright." Her voice was so full and cheerful, that it left me with a small amount of jealousy at how easy it was for her to express her emotions. It was something so small, but at night I felt a yearning for it so deep.

But that aside, I couldn't help but to glanced back the cup and wonder if maybe I had just a little more than a head ache. But surly my mind was playing tricks on me? Yeah, there was nothing to it.

"Are you sure everything's alright, Misato-san?" Something inside just had to ask. Three days was a long time to stay unconscious

"Yep. We'll just have to get the doctors to check you out before we go."

We left shortly after the doctors had given me the once, more like twice, over. All the while I found myself wondering if Rei had seen what I had seen or if it was all just in my head. Truthfully, the actual prospect of asking her scared me a bit more, so I decided to keep it too myself. Besides, she might start to thank me daft or something. 'But it looked so real and what if she did see it, what would that mean? '

'No, it wasn't real so just let it go!'

Trying to force yourself to stop thinking about something has never worked for me. My usual depressed mode was evident of that surely, but silently screaming at myself did have a slightly calming effect, giving me the opportunity to see just how far gone I've become and hoping that it didn't show.

At the time I didn't know why I kept coming back to that cup. But 'It was just a side effect of the angel attack. Nothing serious, right?' This was all I kept telling myself on the way home.

Somehow in the back of my mind I knew that this wasn't the case, like some nagging feeling deep inside that ate away at my unfortunate and unlikely hopeful thoughts, spitting them out onto the cold ground that was the world as a sign to let me know that it wasn't just my imagination and it was bugging the hell out of me.

Misato's blue sports car's tires screeched to a halt, signaling for me to remove myself from the dashboard as was normal procedure.

Reaching our apartment I fixed Pen Pen his lunch and walked Misato to the door as she headed back to Nerv and thus completing my customary emergence into what Asuka would have called my House Broken Male mode. I didn't care. I knew that if I didn't do what needed to be done, the house really would be broken.

'Home alone, again." I sighed, but a picture of myself in that hospital bed all bandaged up swam in my vision. 'I guess this is better than the alternative.' And with that thought I headed to my room for some quite time. I would just have to clean up later.

Lying on my bed, staring at the ceiling always seemed to help me relax and as I lay there, letting all of my troubles past me by, I began to get back a little, just a small portion of the peace of mind that I needed so desperately and saw so very little of during the day.

My thoughts drifted as they usually did while I was there and the enigmatic Rei came to mind, filling my head with little blue headed Angel Slayers and thus turning it up a notch on the waff meter.

'She actually came to see me and not only that but gave me water. I doubt that she would have done that for anyone else. Rei never went out of her way for anything, let alone anyone.'

Rei's presence was an unexpected surprise, though, but it wasn't all that much of a shock.

'But what did that mean? Was she there because she was concerned or was it just out of mandate?' I couldn't help but let out a wistful sigh as I regarded the past morning.

'Maybe I'm just fooling myself. Why would Rei go to see me? Dr. Akagi probably asked her to, no doubt. But Asuka was there as well. What was that about? Why was she so angry.'

This, I couldn't quite answer but there was a great deal about the rather brash pilot of Unit 02 that I couldn't quite understand, so I just threw that morning into that particularly large pile of dirty clothes that I would eventually have to sort through later, panties, bras, booty cutter shorts and all.

'No need to sweat over something I can't do anything about.' I figured.

But all that heavy thinking was wearing me down. I needed something to do and of course, at house Katsuragi, there was always something that needed doing.

So it was rather easy for me to lose myself in the menial household chores that none of my roommates would ever bother doing and if they ever did, would probably do a terrible job of it and would then complain/yell at me about it until I came down off whatever cloud I had been able to climb up to in an attempt to get away and do the deed that anyone else other than those two could have done with ease.

I let out another wistful sigh as I put those thoughts aside.

I had been at it a few hours and had just started on the dishes which had piled up after the three strait days of my absence.

'The girls really can't live without me, can they?' this was a rather pleasing thought but knowing them it only meant that they needed me as a maid.

I was just about to dry off a certain dish, nothing significantly important about that particular dish. It was just a normal plate with some supposedly cute design drawn on its surface. But none of these things caught my attention, freezing me in place, my eyes wide and afraid.

The sound of the faucet running on in the background, unattended to, went unnoticed and the other dishes filling up in the soapy sink were of no consequence.

Only the green code which seemed to make up the dish held my eye. It was the same green computer code from before back at the hospital. What could it mean? Was I going insane? I was sure that that last Angel had done something to me other than put me out for three days and give me a head ache.

No, I was losing it. I had to be? It wasn't decoration, it wasn't something etched into the plate. No, it WAS the plate, a part of it, helping to form the plate.

RINNG, RINNNG, RINNNG.

The phone's ringing shocked me out of my stupor, making me drop the plate and the resounding crash sent my skidding back, my nerves frayed.

RINNG, RINNNG, RINNNG.

The sink faucet continued its steady down pour and the phone its song, but they did it to an empty house, for the young boy with the questionable sanity had long since left.

/WRW/

Two weeks had passed since I had woken up and the incident in the kitchen. Misato had questioned me about what had happened and I had told her some quickly concocted tale to get her off my back.

I was sure she didn't believe me, but she didn't question me further, which I was very grateful for. I had no wish to explain to her what had happened, especially since I didn't really know what was going on myself.

Of course this didn't stop Asuka, she being the one to come home to find the sink over flowing with an angry penguin using an old pizza box to stay afloat. Somehow I had dodged her adamant inquiries with a skill born of necessity, many hours spent practicing in my room at night, and far too many bumps on the head from the numerous chances I had to gain experience. So while I sat at my desk in school I knew exactly why she was giving me that evil eye.

'What is happening to me? Why do I keep seeing that stupid code? I don't even know any computer languages, so why is this stuff haunting me?'

There were many other occasions like the last, but I kept them to myself and tried to take them as they came without freaking out as before. I didn't want the others to think me weird or weirder than usual. How long would the sparse number of friends I did have stay if they found out I was crazy. And of that, I had no doubt.

I had seen the code far to many times to believe it to be just my imagination or just a head ache from battle. It was obviously more than that. What was even more strange was that I didn't just see it on small things like Asuka's bento or the in the hentai magizine the guy behind the counter at the local corner store always read, but I witnessed it in Dr. Akagi's coffee, on Toji's track suit, my father's glasses and even on my Unit 01.

Eva... that was another story that I didn't want to get into. The code from it just seemed... corrupted somehow.

Then there was earlier today. It was lunch time, we were down by the old willow, underneath its soothing branches, something that I so needed. I had been talking to Toji and Kensuke, which pretty much consisted of me and Toji listening to one of our military obsessed friend's rants as he babble on about the perks of some new gun or 'toy' as he liked to called them when Hikari Horaki walked by, completely capturing the eye of my spiky haired friend.

This was nothing new, and Kensuke and I gave each other knowing looks, but when I turned back around to the class rep with her cutesy pigtails and brightly beaming freckled smile, I couldn't help but notice the same green code that haunted my dreams flowing, not only throughout her school uniform, but her as well.

I gave her my greeting with a rather sickly smile and excused myself saying that I had some classwork I that I needed to finish up before I headed to Nerv that day. The others understood and were none the wiser, but this did nothing for my collapsing self confidence as I sat at my desk with Asuka's eyes on me and considering what little I had to begin with, I knew this would not help me at Nerv at all.

/WRW/

I was hoping no one would notice my mood, but of course they did. I couldn't get around the sync test and during it there was no way they couldn't notice.

"Shinji, your scores are slipping. Hell, they've been slipping for awhile now." Dr. Akagi was saying to me after a bout of our recent test. It had been days since I had seen Hikari, but I was unsure how many. The hours seemed to all run together, test merged into test, school into the home, home into school, nothing changed, only my depression grew.

"I don't know what's going on in that head of yours, but you've got to get over it or you won't be able to sync with EVA"

"I understand, ma'am. I'll try harder for now on." I meant what I said, but I didn't have any confidence in it and it must have shown in my voice for she gave me a sympathetic look, but it was quickly replaced by her usual distant, clinical gaze.

"Make sure that you do. Alright Shinji. You can go."

I headed out rather aloof, giving the fake blond a brief goodbye as was courtesy, but my mind was else where.

My problem was getting worse by the day. And with no clue as to its cause, I could do nothing to correct the mistake. What was I going to do. I had to do something, anything really because if I didn't then I was positive that was going to lose the rest of my scant amount of sanity to something that I was not even sure was even tangible.

Strolling down the halls of Nerv didn't do anything to improve my mood. Those stark, soulless corridors held no answers or any manner of soothing warmth for me. I must have been completely lost in my depressing thoughts for I failed to watch my step and ended up colliding into someone.

As I retrieved myself from the floor I immediately began offering apologies to the other but as before they were brushed off.

"It is of no concern Ikari-kun."

"Rei? Oh Ayanami, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to I swear!"

"As I said, it is of no concern. You are usually at your residence by this time. Why have you continued to stay here at headquarters?" The scarlet eyed girl inquired, giving me this odd look as she waited for my answer. I almost felt as if I was being examined.

"Huh, oh, I just had a few things on my mind that I wanted to go over. It's kinda hard to do with Asuka around if you know what I mean?"

"I do not. But I can see your logic. Ikari? Ikari?"

I could hear her calling my name, but the words and their meanings held no significance. The code, it was back. Just like with Hikari the day before yet this time it was different somehow, stronger, more pronounced.

It flowed through Rei and even the walls around me, covering everything within my sight, making my head dizzying with its glow, but only the girl before held my attention.

Rei, her code, for the lack of a better term was nothing like what I had seen with Hikari. Where Hikari's had been energetic and rather lively, moving around her form at a steady pace, seeming to signify her upbeat nature, I couldn't help but feel that if I had seen Toji's or Kensuke the mood or tone, I guess you could say, would have been different considering their personalities, but the over all nature of it would have been the same as Hikari's unlike that of the cup or the plate which seemed more stoic and lifeless.

Inanimate as there were, this was understandable. But Rei, Rei's was something all together different. The code itself was different. Before, I couldn't actually read it but I could understand a bit of what they were meant for. It was more like a feeling really.

To keep it simple it was as if the symbols had been familiar, as if I had seen them before in a dream or something, or maybe as a childhood memory that resurfaced and was vaguely recognizable.

Yet Rei's wasn't like this. Everything, from the walls around me to the floor beneath, were all made up of the same symbols, but Rei's code was not. Hell even the color was wrong.

Her's was the first I'd seen with a bluish tint. There was green in there just like everyone else, but the ciphers for her blue pieces of code where almost of an entirely different language. As if God wrote her into the system with ink and the rest of us in pencil.

Those were the last thoughts that I had on the subject that day or for the next week. before the green coded walls closed in around me and my world went black.


	2. a forgotten memory

/ Welcome to the Real World/

-lawlesspriest-

0.2 - a question of salvation

The icy wind blew by him as his feet carried him across the froze landscape. His goal lay ahead by some miles, but miles were no more than a few meters to him.

Time had always been his enemy, a complex variable standing in the way of his ambitions, his purpose. But he could not fail his purpose. No, not this one, for the fate of all things hung rested on a precarious ledge awaiting just the right amount of push in either direction to decided whichever future, whether it be doom or salvation, the world would meet.

There would be no backup for this mission. He knew that the others would never make it in time. Only he could do what was needed. He was the One, the only one who could do it. So he ran. He ran like the devil himself was on his tail, but in reality, the devil lay ahead of him and was quietly waiting for him to make his appearance.

Bounding over an icy hill he landed as softly as would a feather on a roll of silk. Little things like gravity were but a joke to him, more of a figment of his imagination. It he wished it to be, it would, if not, it wouldn't. This power that he held within was all that stood against those that would see the world burned to ash as they resurrected it in their own image, becoming a feeding ground for their twisted designs, a prison for those who's minds were once free.

But these extraneous thoughts were of no use to him now, for there it was. There up ahead, dug right into the iceberg was the research camp. Wasting no thought on his enemy 'Time' he leapt, soaring into the air. The guards below had no idea what hit them as the ground beneath their feet became an instant crater, burying them into it's frozen depths.

He carried nothing for the mountains of ice that shattered before him, the biting cold of the Antarctic winds or its below zero temperatures. These things were nothing but a brief inconvenience. He was numb to the world, blind to everything other than his goal and only it held color in his eyes.

A thundering crash signaled his arrival as huge chunks of ice fell behind him in his wake. Floating above the huge cavern, even he couldn't help but be amazed at the size of the sleeping being buried under the enormous mass of ice below him.

"Well, well, well. We're glad you could join us Mr. Anderson. But I am afraid that you are too late." One of the eternally pressed and suited men called from below as a machine of some sort was inserting the Lance into the Its side.

Now was his chance. He couldn't delay any longer.

"No! I will not fail." And with this cry, he flew. The machines below him shot at his fleeting form, but their bullets were too slow, too slow by far as they rippled behind his speeding body only to impact into the cavern's ceiling above while he passed by unharmed.

Grabbing the bizarre twisted two pronged weapon the size of a 40 story building, the One pulled with all his supernatural might. Pain erupted from his back as their bullets pierced him from behind but he kept on while his life blood seeped down his hands as inch by slow inch the ancient weapon slipped further and further out of the paled skinned giant.

After a while their deadly shots ceased and a stifling silence filled the air only to be disturbed by the slow yet steadily increasing pitch of the machine like men below's laughter.

'What the hell are they laughing?'

Not stopping his actions he glanced at their amused forms that were now bordering on hysteria. In all his time fighting their kind he had never known them to laugh... Smirk evilly, yes. Give a sadistic little chuckle, occasionally, but this. 'What the...' He never got to finish that thought as the sleeping beast began to glow with a light so bright it rivaled the sun.

His last vision was that of the once slumbering form rising as it ripped the Lance from its side with an ease that was all the more terrifying because of its size. It was then that the awesome power he sensed within its massive build reached a critical mass, burning out his eyes even as it began its destruction of the continent known as Antarctica,

'I've...'

02 - a forgotten memory

'... failed.'

A whisper of a dream flitered through my murky thoughts.

"I don't care about anything like that! Why do I have to be here at all? It's not like he's not going to wake up!"

And then I could hear voices...

"He's the INVINCIBLE SHINJI IKARI, remember. Why should I have to worry about him at all?"

voices... in my head, shouting in my brain like a hangover

"This isn't normal Asuka! Haven't you noticed how strange he's been acting of late and now this? People just don't make a habit of fainting and not waking up for days, Asuka!"

and they were only getting louder.

"What's your point? Nothing the Baka does is normal. Besides, what does our being here supposed to do? He can't hear us Misato."

"It's just for support, whether he can hear us or not. You know we would do the same for you."

"Sure Misato, whatever."

I wasn't sure if it was a dream or something else, but I didn't seem to have enough energy to open my eyes so my vision remained dark, forcing my imagination to come up with the corresponding images.

I pictured a surprisingly accurate picture of myself in one of Nerv's standard hospital beds, but truly considering just how many times I had been in one of those beds I figured it probably wasn't as surprising as it seemed, but that aside, judging from the placement of their voices I imagined Asuka a little to my left, sitting a chair across the room and not happy with it, while Misato sat to right, next to the bed, her expression slightly angry yet warring with her worry.

It wasn't unusual that they would be arguing over me, their stark differences in opinion concerning me made that inevitable, but this fight was different somehow.

I don't know how, but it almost seemed as if I could hear their thoughts, know what they were going to say before they said it, but the words themselves were lost, leaving only the hazy memory behind like some lilting voice in the back of my mind whispering to me secrets that I could almost comprehend only to fade from my memory right before the moment of understanding.

The insanity of this aside I could swear that I could sense a worried tension in Asuka voice and Misato's was all but screaming at me. I knew this to be an impossible conclusion obviously, but yet something within would not let me blow it off as a passing fancy.

'It's just like the cup all over again.'

"So we're just supposed to sit here and wait for that idiot to wake up?"

"Asuka we ..." The major's phone chose that moment to interrupt.

"Yes, hello? ..... I see. ... sigh. Yes I'll be there soon, Sir. Bye."

Even without my sight I could tell Asuka was getting even further annoyed by this. Extra senses or not I had spent enough time with the girl to know her moods... ok, maybe not enough time considering a few of those times she completely stunned me, but I still had a general idea of how her mind worked and I knew it was slowly coming close to full rage right about now.

"Please before you say anything, Asuka, I know you don't want to be here, but do this for me just this once?"

"I'm not that baka, those puppy dog eyes aren't going to work on me."

The silence lasted for about three minutes and I felt their emotions and the games they both played behind the scenes, knowing the victor long before the red head gave in.

"Baka. Now look what you've got me into." She said after our guardian had left.

Strangely it was quiet for a long time and my senses were having serious feedback issues because they kept telling me that Asuka was crying.

Now, I knew that to be an another impossibility. Asuka Langley Sohryu doesn't cry and that one time that night way back when was only a technicality. So what the hell was going on?

"Baka." her near silent sob virtually shook me. I say virtually because I couldn't actually move at the time but if I could, I would have.

'She's crying, for me? Asuka's crying for me? What is the world coming to?' Now I knew this to be a dream. Yep, just a fever dream brought on by whatever it was that caused me to pass out in the first place. It had to be...

"You had better come back you Baka, you hear me. Stupid Shinji leaving me alone with Misato's cooking. Nobody cooks Miso soup like you do."

'She actually likes my cooking?' so what was with all those times she yelled that it was the worse she'd ever had or that she'd rather have take out than to have to deal with another one of my boring Japanese dishes.

"And how am I supposed to fight the Angels now, huh? The doll's no proper back up. NO! I can do it on my own! I don't need him, I don't need anyone!"

Apparently there was a whole lot more to Asuka than I had originally known. But I heard no more of her ranting as I lost consciousness once more, yet leaving my mind with images of a young girl with a heart torn by pride.

/WRW/

I woke again to a familar ceiling but unlike usually, this one I was rather glad to see, hell I was rather glad to see anything. For a moment there I had believed that I had gone blind. Can't fight the Angels blind, now could I. And who would be Asuka's back up then, right?

Sitting up was a test of determination. My whole body felt so weak... so useless, but my mind was so free, so... open. I was aware of everything that was around me. Like the blue haired girl sitting across the room, exactly where a red head had once sat only a few days ago. Oh, and I didn't miss the cup of water she had ready on the side.

"Hello, Ayanami. Is that for me?" I asked pointing to the cup without looking.

"Hai. Are you well, Ikari?"

"I don't know. But I believe that I am better."

/WRW/

"And here we are. Aren't you glad to be back home Shinji?" Misato was saying to me. The smile she wore was of relief as we exited the car and boarded the elevator.

"Yes, I guess I am."

"Good!" the elder women said with enthusiasm as the ping announced our floor. "Because so am I. We really missed you Shinji, you had us so worried."

"I didn't mean to be a bother Misato, it's just..." I was very close to telling her the whole story, but... I just couldn't. I just wasn't ready. "I didn't mean to make you worry. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You have nothing to feel sorry for. No one can take into account things like this. They just happen." She was saying, but somehow I doubted that. Things like 'this' didn't just happen.

"Anyway, I'm just glad your alright. I can't have anything happen to my little Shinji-kun." The giggle she gave as she hugged me close brought a small smile to my lips. Misato would always be Misato. And that was just the way I wanted it to be.

We were at the door by then and I couldn't help but think that once again I was.. home. A place that for a long time had only lived within my dreams. Well maybe my dreams were coming true.

"Don't worry about dinner, I sure we can find something to eat, I could order take out or ..." Misato said as she opened the door.

"WELCOME BACK SHINJI!" the cry went up from within.

"Or we could just throw a party instead." Misato finished.

I was speechless and my hanging mouth was proof of this. Everyone was there, smiling as if they had had a long drought and after months of pouring rain the sun had finally come out.

"Well, you gonna stand there Baka or are you gonna come in? I know you missed me but do you have to stare?" Asuka's question brought me back as I closed my mouth, but I couldn't take off the goofy smile I had on throughout the entire party.

"Welcome home Shinji." I heard Misato say softly as we came in. And for some time I was truly glad to be there.

/WRW/

The bell signaled the end of class and we all gathered our things and left. Ken was headed off to the Arcade and Hikari and Asuka were going shopping, while Misato was out of town. It was going to be another lonely day, but I was alright with that.

Even with weeks since my return I still had a lot to deal with and I needed time to think it all through. And the happy vibe I gained at the party couldn't sustain me long. Not with what was happening to me.

So I took the long way home, listening to the birds giving their cheerful song to the public as if they were trying to lighten my gloomy mood. The trees swayed in the wind and people walked calmly down the sidewalks with children at their heels.

The world moved on to its regular beat, everything keeping to its normal pace, yet I knew that there was more to it all, a deeper mystery lying underneath the daily routines of work, home and school, whether I knew what any of it meant was another matter all together, though.

'What was happening to me? I can't talk to anyone at Nerv. Who knows what they would say? Dr. Akagi, what would she tell father? What would he do?'

I really didn't want to think about that. To him I'd be even more useless than before. No more Misato, no more Asuka, Toji, Kensuke, Rei.... no more Eva. That would probably be the only good thing that would come out of it, but then what would I be without Eva? What use would I have?

... sigh.

I couldn't help but sigh. No one could help me. My friends would leave me and Nerv would have me locked away saying that I was mentally unstable or something of its like. But was I? The code just seemed so real, too real, almost more real than... than... the real world.

I had to take a seat at a near by bench to calm myself. With my hands covering my face, holding my head up just barely, I must have been one pathetic sight. No amount of bird song was going to be able to lift my spirits.

'If only I could....' my sentence cut off mentally, my thought process was interrupted, more like shaken or shattered.

FEAR

I'd never felt like that before except when I was in Eva. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong.

Looking up, I glanced around, my gaze panicked. Searching among the crowd I saw nothing out of the ordinary. Nothing but smiling faces, and men and women in business suits on their way to some important meeting or another. It was a lie. I wasn't safe there so I left, wandering aimlessly down the busy streets of the fortress city Tokyo 3. The same city that I protected, the same city that seemed to be driving me insane and it held whatever unseen danger that was stalking me.

I made it to a ramen shop somewhere in the middle of the city and decided to sit down with a good view of across the street, ordering something random on the menu.

People passed me by and I ate my meal quietly all the while keeping an eye on those around me. I would have missed it if I hadn't been so paranoid.

It was a man, just like any other. A business man in a nice, cleanly cut suit and tie with dark shades that hid his eyes.

'One of father's Section 2 agents?' I thought. No, this man was something else, something more than passively menacing, something more than the regular indifferently formal watch dog of my father's.

I snuck peeks at him out of the corner of my eye and for a fleeting second I could have sworn he looked me in the eye, but that's when I saw it and all pretense that this man was normal fled

His code... it was... corrupted for a lack of a better weird. It was green yet... like Rei's it didn't end there, but I wasn't that it held another source or the like, it was that it lacked one. Everyone I had every seen had a full code, there weren't any missing areas, even Rei with her two sets were whole. But not this man. No. His was ... I didn't know. I couldn't place it, but it had the impression that it was cold, almost dead.

'What now? What the hell am I supposed to do now?'

Racking my brain produced no answers. I had to get away, there was no question about that, but how and where to? They would no doubt follow me and I had no doubts that there were more. Something inside just would not let me believe other wise. It had done me right so far so I would trust it again, but I needed a plan of action.

I had to keep moving, just like before with father's Section 2 agents, but I knew that even that would not be enough, but it was a start. So I paid for my meal and headed off, walking down the sidewalk at a casual pace. No need to look as paranoid as I felt inside. I choose turns at random but all the while taking a round about way leading back home to Misato's.

They followed of course, always at a safe distance as if they were casually strolling down the same path as me. There were times when they would even drop back out of sight completely and for brief moments I would believe that I had truly lost them, but that was never the case.

'I can't go back home. They'll know where I live then. Man what I wouldn't give for a... '

The honking of a blue car's horn parked to the left of me stopped me in my tracks.

'Misato?'

"Hey Shinji! I thought it was you. You look like you need a lift."

There with the window rolled down looking out with a smile on her face was my savior, Ms. Ibuki. I took a quick look around, but my followers were gone, lost in the crowd.

"Um, If it wouldn't be TOO much trouble..." I began.

/WRW/

The ride was ridden in silence, but it wasn't as awkward as it could have been. Keeping myself calm took up more of my concentration than usual. Not five minutes before I had been chased by an unknown number of unsavory individuals for some reason or another and now I was alone in a car riding to safety with an older, pretty young women. So of course I was having a bit of a time trying to calm myself.

And it seemed Ms. Ibuki noticed as well.

"Are you alright Shinji? You've been a bit off of late and I'm not just talking about the sync test."

Obviously she noticed a lot more.

"I'm fine. I... I've just had a lot on my mind." That one always worked and should hold any other thoughts she might have on the subject.

The screeching of the tires an the serious look she threw my way told me otherwise.

'0 for 2. This really hasn't been my week has it.' I couldn't help but think.

"Shinji. I know that we don't talk to each other a lot, but if something is bothering you I want you to know that you can come to me about it. Misato isn't the only one who cares about you, you know."

I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing care forth. What could I say to that. 'She cared?'

"Why?" I didn't mean to say that part out loud, but it was too late.

The brown eyed women merely smiled.

"The usual reasons, Shinji. And no, it's not because you're an EVA pilot and all of our lives rest on you shoulders. I don't know, I guess I just ... like you."

Once again, I was left speechless. Maya Ibuki liked me. I knew Kensuke and Toji would have flipped hearing that, but I knew that she didn't mean it like that. She ...

"I considered you a friend, Shinji. And friends talk to each other about there problems. We can't solve everything on our own you know."

'...sigh'

I couldn't tell her. She wouldn't believe me, and if she did.... But I couldn't get away from her soft smile and those kind eyes.

And in the end.... I gave in.

/WRW/

She took me to her place and we sat and talked. She actually listened and didn't judge me for what happened. I told her about the first time with the cup and what really happened the day I ran away. Her eyes widened at that and she looked as if she was about to say something, but instead kept it too herself.

I didn't actually go into detail with what happened with Rei, even I knew that would be too weird so I made it seem like all of the other events, and finally ending with the Suited Men who followed me.

For a few silenent moments she said nothing, her eyes closed and her brow furrowed. Worry buried itself deep into my heart.

'Did I make the right choice. Maybe I shouldn't have told her. She'll think I'm crazy! Look at her, she thinks I'm nuts! She's going to tell father!'

I was about to make a beeline for the door but she called my name and somehow her voice stopped me. That simple word that changed my life and the fate of the world. But I didn't know that then. Hell, I knew personally and with great detail just how much I didn't know as she told me 'her' story...


	3. questions?

/Welcome to the Real World/

- lawless priest -

0.3 - a victim's hope

'They should have been back by now.'

That was all the young girl in the pink and white dress with the short cut brown hair could think about as she stood in front of the flower shop as the citizens of Tokyo milled about a bit worriedly, wondering as to what could have caused the scene.

'They should have been back by now. They said they would be back soon. That it was nothing to worry about.'

The sounds of struggle and the ringing of gun shots echoing from somewhere within the anxious crowd of humanity that waited with held breath as the drama played itself out didn't do much to calm the young girl's nerves.

Somehow, she couldn't help but think that it was her fault that they were late. Her father had attempted to hurry them along, knowing how long it would take for her and her mother to shop if left to their own devices. But on their way out, with her father letting go a thankful sigh, a nearby article had caught her attention.

Thinking back on it now she wished she hadn't asked her mother that simple question. Maybe then they would never have stayed, maybe then her father would have prodded them along to some store closer to their vehicle and a step closer to the safety of their home.

But she did ask. She had no reason not to.

It was just a flower. A pretty, purple, gay little flower. One of a variety that the young Maya Ibuki had never laid eyes on before. So, with a innocent smile and her eyes filled wide with wonder, she made an inquiry on the subject which made her father only try to steer them along again, but a quick look from her mother and a peck on the cheek as a bribe, the young girl received her answer while her father stood there flustered with a blush that passers by only smiled at.

But now, she wondered if the answer was worth it. She could hear the sirens coming closer as the public sought to relocate themselves from the unknown menace hidden somewhere in their mist.

It was a wonder that those around her still didn't know what was going on, almost as if they had forgotten the incident even after they themselves had played a part in it.

Their shouts and angry yells had rung clear in her young ears, the scene still fresh in her memory, yet the others... they did not seem to remember at all.

How could they forget. It wasn't every day you saw a woman dressed in black leather from head to foot being chased by government agents as they barreled through the heavy crowd, their weapons going off without hesitation even with the large number of people around.

Maya's parents had seen them coming and had pulled her back to the flower shop's wall least she be tramped as the darkly dressed woman ran by.

The desperate look in the woman's eyes as she glanced at her while dodging those slower to move was something that Maya knew that she would never forget.

Along with the distracted, yet coldly determined look her parents had given her when the government agents stopped in front of them, giving them a nod as they told her to say where she was, and that they would return soon, while they headed off with the dark suit men.

The image of her father straitening his tie that she had never seen before as he patted her head absently while her mother fixed the dark shades over eyes, ones that had not been there before was still stuck in her mind while those around her looked on with dumb expressions, walking along almost bewildered, lost with no direction as more darkly suited men moved within their mist, unnoticed by all except for one small, dismayed eight year old.

But that had been some time ago. And somewhere deep

within her told her that they would not be coming back. And the final depressing echo of the police sirens only emphasized her train of thought.

Later when the cops made it to the scene of the crime they found no sign of either the woman who authorities claimed to be a terrorist or the Government agents who were sent to capture her, only the bullet riddled bodies of her parents and that of an business man who his co-workers said just up'd and walked out of one of their companies board meetings, who's office was miles away on the other side of town.

What was even more strange was that no one, not one of the local witnesses remembered really seeing the agents or their faces enough to identify them. Most never remembered them ever being there at all.

They were as ghosts, like a campfire tale told to scare little children. So like any child her age, the only witness who knew something was amiss said nothing, least she anger the ghosts that took her parents away from her and destroyed her innocent little world.

03 - questions?

There was silence in the room for some time. 'Her parents had been murdered some time around the same age I had lost my own' I thought to myself but I wondered what that had to do with me. 'The suited men... could they be the same?'

"I know you must be wondering what any of this has to do with your story, but I needed you to understand how things started out." Maya said as she walked to the kitchen to pour herself a drink.

I had never tasted alcohol but I was starting to get an idea of why adults seemed so attracted to it.

"I was only eight when my parents were killed and I had no real family anywhere near Tokyo in those days and even less after 2nd Impact, but that's not the point."

"After the police investigation, I ended up living with my neighbor in her apartment across the hall, who I used to joke around and call the Oracle because she just seemed to know everything. She was very nice and was a very close friend of my parents so she took full custody of me after then.

And It was from her that I learned about the truth of what happened that day, about who those men were and why my parents went off with them like they did."

"The truth?"

"Yes, Shinji. The truth. You see... " She paused to sigh., looking about for something to help her tell her tale. "How do you explain this, part?"

Apparently the 'truth' was a rather difficult thing to explain, but it couldn't have been anywhere close to what I had to go through trying to explain to her what happened to me.

She finally throw up her hands and just went for it after shaking her pretty little head in frustration.

"Shinji, have you ever felt as if you couldn't tell if the things around you were real, as if you were dreaming and the world was your dream? I know that sounds weird, but please be honest."

"You mean, if I was awake, but unsure if I was still dreaming?"

"Yes, that's it exactly!"

"Um... well, yeah. All the time. And every since this whole thing started I've been kind of hoping it was all a dream."

"I'm afraid not. To be totally honest with you, I doubt we'll ever know for sure, but I do know why this is."

"You do?"

"Yes, Shinji. I do. It's because of the Matrix."

"The... Matrix?"

"Yes."

"The Matrix is..." another pause. "To put it simply the Matrix is the world around you or a way to control the world. Before, we had believed it to be some type of highly developed interactive virtual reality program constructed by a group of very powerful people. But we were only half right."

"What do you mean and who's we?"

"I'll get to that another time, but as for the first question, the code that you have been seeing was Matrix code."

"Wait, but that would mean that..."

"Yes... that this world is that program that I was talking about."

"But that can't the possible! I mean, I think we would know if this were a program!"

"That's what we said, but even if it were true, we'd still be wrong. The Matrix isn't a program. Like I said before, this is only what we had originally believed."

"So what is it? What's the Matrix?"

"That I can't really say, but I will tell you this. The code that you have been seeing, it's real. Without a doubt, it is as real as you and me. It's like pre-described rules that define how we interact with the things around us.

"Then it's what I had figured from the start. This place, it's made up of the code."

"Yes."

"But that can't be right."

"And why not?"

"Wouldn't that make us programs then. Just bits of data thrown around for someone else's entertainment?"

"Almost, but we aren't programs Shinji. You could say that the code... the Matrix itself is only there to bind us, restrict us to certain moves, actions. It's a cage Shinji, the Matrix is a trap to imprison us behind daily routines, confined hours and convenient social beliefs. Its a prison for our minds."

"But why? It doesn't make sense."

"Of course it does. It we knew what the Matrix was, we'd figure out how to use it, how to go beyond such heavy boundaries as oh.. I don't know, say gravity."

"Gravity?"

"Yes Shinji. Essentially, the Matrix is a master program or at least acts as if it were one, only it exists in the physical realm."

"How can that be true? How can any of this be real?"

"I don't know Shinji, but I do know that Nerv has something to do with this and the Angels as well."

"Nerv, the Angels?"

"Yes, Shinji. I joined Nerv because the men who killed my parents, worked for the people who started Nerv."

"But who ar..." The ringing of my cell phone cut me off from what I was going to say.

"Um... hello? Oh um... hello Asuka. Oh, no. I'm fine. No I didn't bump my head on my way home, why? Oh.. Um sure, I'll do it on my way back, I... just decided to make a stop along the way. Don't worry, ... sure... sorry, of course you wouldn't. I'll be home soon. Good bye."

"It seems we'll have to continue this conversation another time." Maya was saying. She looked disappointed. A part of me thought she looked cute when she pouted that way, but my mind was focused elsewhere.

"Miss Ibuki I..."

"Please Shinji, just call me Maya."

"Um... ok. Ma-Maya, it's just that... I... sigh." Holding my head in my hands, I sighed in frustration. "I just don't get it. Why am I seeing these things? Are there other people out there who have seen what I have? Have you?"

"I'm sorry Shinji, but no. No one is supposed to be able to see the Matrix for what it truly is without help."

"Help?" What kind of help could she be talking about? The smile she was giving me sorta threw me off and it only continued to get winder.

"Don't worry about it Shinji. I'll show you personally next time we talk. But you should be going now, or Ms. Sohryu might get upset."

She was right. I had stayed too long and no doubt Pen Pen and Asuka were probably duking it out in the kitchen. They were going to have my ass when I got back for making them wait, but I was used to it.

You could say it was pleasant, in a sort of bizarre tortured kind of way, for its normality, at least as for as my life went, compared to the way things had been going of late.

"Oh and Shinji..." I was at the door to her apartment about to head out. "You can stop by anytime you need to talk, or just call me if you have any questions. I know I had plenty when I found out about the Matrix."

"Um...ok." Actually calling Maya Ibuki, or for that matter calling a girl, scratch that, a woman... scared me a bit. I was starting to feel lightheaded.

"Wait I'll drive you. No need for you to walk all the way." I was deeply grateful, but not because of the distance and the pistol I caught her slipping into her pocketbook out of the corner of my eye said that she was thinking along the same lines.

Neither us wanted to be caught unprepared again. Our past had taught us the danger in this.

/WRW/

"I can't wait until our next meeting." The bright eyed technician said with another killer smile. That amount of gleefulness should have been illegal or at least marginally distributed with care.

"Don't worry Shinji. I'll show you all of the fun stuff next time." And with that brightly lit show, drove off, her smile still wide. I tried to control the little twitch at the corner of my mouth. I didn't feel like smiling, but sometimes I just couldn't help it around Ms. Ibu... I mean Maya.

'Maya... how did you become the person you are today, even with your terrible past? Why can't I be as happy as you are?'

I received no answers as I made my way up the elevator, only a bit of sappy music and a depressing silence. The small bit of optimism I had gained while with Maya had fled and I was back where I had started, but at least I had learned a bit about what was happening to me and Ms. Ibuki had promised more answers next time.

"Maybe things are looking up?" I said aloud, but the ping of the elevator doors opening and too very irate looking individuals and an abashed Hikari Horaki in the background were staring me down as I dashed to hit the down button shattered that dream.

"Man... I can still hear their screams and squawks through the doors and I'm five floors down now." I said with a small smile

After catching my breath I stood up when the elevator pinged again as the doors opened but the sight in front of me did a excellent job of slapping that smile off of my face.

It was him. The man I had saw early, still in his suit and tie standing there not a foot away from me. I couldn't move, I couldn't think. I couldn't do anything.

Or maybe I could... I don't even remember pushing the up button as the doors closed and the car headed up. The sight of my terror stricken face must have put an end to whatever rants the bird and the red head had as they saw me standing there frozen.

I'm not sure how many times they called my name because I wasn't listening. Only when I heard the ping of the elevator again down I snap out of my trance. The doors were closing. Someone or something had called the elevator down.

The doors closed with a hiss but I grabbed them and ripped them open and was down the hall in my room in no time. The girls probably thought I was crazy, but I didn't give a damn. I wasn't going out again. I wasn't going anywhere. I wasn't ....

'They followed me here. They know where I live. No, they had to have followed Ms. Ibuki. Oh god, they followed Maya! The people who killed her parents know where she lives!'

I had to warn her.

Hikari was at my door trying to console me into letting her in but I ripped the doors open again and was past her in the living room, rushing trying to phone Maya.

Asuka stood there to the side watching me with a strange look on her face. Her suspicion was obvious. But I didn't care. And the shooked expression she gave as I yelled Maya's name over the phone was to die for, but like I said, I didn't care. I wasn't even really aware of her presence.

"They followed me! The men from before, the ones who chased me, they followed me here. They must know where you live now too! Calm down? And how am I supposed to CALM DOWN DAMNIT!" I screamed to the woman on the other end.

I hadn't meant to do that, but emotion took over. I just hoped she'd take my apologies when I had time to gain control... but that was going to be a long time from now.

"First theirs that angel that swallowed me and quite possible killed me, then there's the code and every time I see it I think I going crazy, and now this? I don't even know what the Mat... ?"

The ringing of the doorbell shattered every thought process in my brain, causing a massive error, crashing my system. I only remember turning my head towards the door as my body began to drop with Maya yelling my name over the phone.

The code... it was ...everywhere. And the thing outside my door, it's code was as corrupted as my Eva's.

/WRW/

I was starting to get tired of this fainting mess.

I was sure Asuka would have had something stinging to say about the whole thing, but as far as I knew she wasn't around to say it. But then again, I didn't think anyone was around to say anything.

At first there was nothing, a pitch black nothing, making me almost believe that I had gone blind again, but then that darkness burst with a blinding light, bright enough that I could still see it with my hands over my closed eyes.

Eventually the radiant glow became soft enough for me to open my eyes and instead of floating in an endless shady sea of a sinister gloom I was left there in a white so stark it was scary.

Turning around only showed me the same scene and after a while I found my self wondering if I was even moving at all or if I'd ever be able to tell the difference.

'Maybe I'm dead. Would I be able to tell the difference from that either?'

I would have mused a bit more on the odd circumstances that my life had become but the scene changed again but at a rapid pace, as if someone was rummaging through my head like it was a filling cabinet searching for some top secret report, leaving me with a massive head ache and filling my mind with half formed images who's meanings were only barely clear after they had been replaced by another.

Some I recognized as my memories from before Nerv, but others were all together new. Places I had never been, people I had never meet and deeds done that I 'knew' that I could never do, they were all inner mixed with my own that at some point I began to wonder where I began and whoever memories the others were beg...

But before I could even sort out my mental confusion the emotions of those memories hit me and the weight of their combined knowledge left me staggering, or as much as one can stagger while floating in a sea of white nothingness while one's head is being tossed about like a soccer ball.

And with the speed at which it began it ended. I don't even remember the white room or whatever it was returning to ebony blackness. But the foot in my side more or less brought me back to the present as my eyes, along with my mouth, exploded to explore my surroundings. - after screaming out a bit first, of course -

"About time Ikari. I always knew you were one of the lazy types."

"Asuka! You shouldn't do that. He could really be hurt?" The class rep reprimand her friend.

"Whatever. It'll take more than that to take down the Great Shinji Ikari." The German girl said with a toss of her hair.

"Was that actually a compliment from you?" The pigtailed girl couldn't hold back a giggle.

"What? What are you talking about? I'd never...!" I would have laughed at how wide her eyes were as she tried to find a way to save face, but the pain I was in didn't allow for many distractions. It kinda wanted me to keep all of my attention centered on it.

"Calm down Asuka. It was just a joke." Another giggle escaped her lips.

"And a sorry one at that, but whatever."

"Hikari... Asuka... you two, you're not hurt?" I was able to force out, between breaths. They certainly sounded unhurt, but the suited man?

"Worry about yourself Third. What was that all about anyway? That punk just came in like he owned the place. I swear only a stooge would piss off Section 2. They are here for our protection you know? You shouldn't get on their nerves with your stoogeness." Typical Asuka, but this was probably for the best.

"Um Shinji are you alright?" Hikari asked while giving her friend a weird look. "I'm not sure what just happened either, but you hit the ground pretty hard."

"I.. I'm fine." I wasn't, but they didn't need to know that. Standing was a task, but eventually I managed. I did notice Asuka and Hikari giving me strange looks and the slightly worried expression on the red head's face was a little distracting but like I said, I managed.

"So, you going to explain what just happened?"

"Yes, and... could you tell us... what's the Matrix?"

That put a stop to my movement.

"What?"

"The Matrix. All the while that guy held you all I could think about was the Matrix."

"Yeah. I couldn't even move, it was like I weighed a ton, but the dumb word kept repeating itself in head." Asuka also replied.

"I.. I don't know what you are talking about." I knew that wasn't going to fly, but I just needed to get to my room and lock the door before they got wise and stopped me. I really needed time to think.

...sigh.

But of course that didn't happen. I'm not even sure how I ended up on the floor, but on the floor is where I ended up.

"You weren't thinking of skipping out on us, now were you Shinji?" The red head was on my right looking at me with an innocent expression that would have had old men falling all over themselves.

"Of course he wasn't Asuka That would have been quite rude of him, now wouldn't?" And her brown haired compatriot was on my left as if they were trying to flank me.

"And we all know Shinji isn't the rude type." The German continued.

"So... how about you be a good sport Ikarii-kun and explain to us what all of this was about like a good boy."

I could tell that my escape plan was not going at all how I had planed it and the closer the two girls got the less likely I was of getting away.

"I mean, you wouldn't want to disappoint such beautiful young girls like ourselves who were gracious enough to bless you with our presence and allow you the opportunity to help us with our small problem."

"We would be oh so thankful, wouldn't we Asuka?"

"Oh yes Hikari, we would."

Their smiles were as fake as Rei's hair color or at least I thought it was fake.... 'She couldn't really have blue hair now could she? Ken kept saying he knew of a sure fire way to tell, but that gleam in his eye had a bit of a hentai sheen to it. So it would probably be a good idea to be elsewhere if he every tested out his theory.'

"So, you can go right ahead and tell us Shinji." Hikari was saying.

"Yes, you wouldn't want to keep us wai..."

RING RINNG RINNNG

It was the telephone.

Maya.

I made it in record time.

"Maya! Maya is that you?"

"Um... no. I'm pretty sure my name is Misato. So you're with Ibuki now is it? Well I don't think Rei is going to take a liking to this new development, Shinji-kun. Playing the two like that isn't really a nice thing to do you know?"

"What are you talking about Misato? Whatever, I have to call Maya, so hold on and I'll call you right back, ok, Bye."

"Hey, but wait! I'm not..."

Click.

I didn't have time for the Major's antics. Maya could be in very serious danger.

"Maya, hello? Are you there? May..."

Click. "We're sorry, but the number you have dialed is temporary..." Click.

"Shit! Shit! Shit!"

"Wow, Shinji. I've never heard you swear before. You alright?" Asuka and Hikari were at my side and made me jump a bit, but I recovered quickly.

"No I'm not alright. Do I look alright to you? Whatever, I don't have time for this." I said, heading for the door.

"Hey, wait." Hikari was saying. "You can't just go. You haven't even told us what just happened."

"I don't have the time. I need to get to Ms. Ibuki, before something bad happens to her."

"I what do you think you're going to do about it if something does happen. You can't just go there on your own, you know?" Asuka called out from behind me, but I wasn't listening.

The cops wouldn't be of any help and if Nerv was involved with the suited men then talking to them would only make matters worse... 'so I'm on my own.' I told myself as I went out the front door.

or so I thought.


	4. journey‘s beginning

/AN: First off I'd like to thank the reviewers and the readers. I wasn't sure I could do this fic at first considering the nature of both stories and still keep it in tune with both. But because of your support I believe I can actually make this crossover work .

and don't worry, the action will start to pick up soon but even Shinji needs a real reason to get all heroic like... or it wouldn't be right. ... and as to which of the rest of the eva cast I'm going to introduce to the matrix is a bit of a question. If you guys have any suggestions or request, please tell me and I'll see what I can do. /AN

/Priest/

/0.4: undeterred/

The sun was beginning its daily descent into the horizon while taking its precious rays along with it, attempting to cast the world into another eternal summer night. Some would have called the cycle pleasantly romantic and may have commented on it in such a way as to bring a smile to any nearby listener's face.

Unless that nearby listener was one Shinji Ikari, especially on this day. And as the evening's energetic reds and laughing oranges merged into profound blues and troubling purples the young pilot of Unit 01 ran on, unaware of the changing's of the heavenly bodies above, nor caring for them or any of those around him.

He had lost the troop of Section 2 operatives that usually tailed him whenever he left the Major's home some time ago and briefly, he had thought of asking one of them for a ride but that plan had been scrapped long before it ever actually made it to the drawing board.

They would've been of no help, only getting in the way, asking questions that couldn't be rightfully answered, ones that would eventually lead back to his father.

And that he could not have.

So he continued on his course while silently his subconscious pondered the unusual turnaround in his behavior. Under normal circumstances he would have fallen over winded and exhausted from his trek, but for some unknown reason that was not the case this time.

Outwardly it seemed the young Ikari barely gave a thought to the subject, his mind totally on the matter of Miss Ibuki's safety. And the oddness of him rushing off to someone else's rescue only occurred to him in an abstract fashion. Like someone noticing the grace of a tiger the moment before it struck.

Anyone who knew him might have had second thoughts about if the young man darting through traffic, cutting corners and alleyways to reach his destination actually was the socially inept, perpetually downcast and shy Shinji Ikari.

He didn't even consider of how he would proceed once he arrived at her location. He could have cared less what his options were, or what odds would most likely stand between him and his goal.

All of those thoughts were extraneous, no more relevant than the night sky or the chirping of the katydids. They were merely wasted electric impulses traveling to his brain and he had no time for such useless synapses.

Nightly strollers witnessing his journey who had never met him knew off the bat that the young man was driven toward a goal, whether it be attainable or not, and that he seemed extremely determined through the fiercely unyielding expression in his eyes. His movements were fluid and firm as he dodged people, cars and other inanimate objects alike.

The personification of Resolve.

And as the rise of the train station came into view and the images of his previous battles against the angels and his training filled him with needed encouragement, a stray thought flashed through his mind.

'Would resolve be enough?'

/04: journey's beginning/

The sound of the train car as it hit each track laid a sure and steady beat in my head as I sat in the hard hybrid of plastic and metal that served as a seat on the train. The murk of the before dark shielded my vision of the Tokyo 3 night life in the window as the city's skylines fled from sight, making my apprehension grow stronger.

There was no turning back now. I had come too far. It was as if Misato had yelled 'Eva Launch' as the girls and I began another mission to save the city.

But the girls weren't with me today. No, this was like the Third Angel attack and I was on my own.

The fact that I didn't even actually defeat that Angel on my own didn't do any to help calm my nerves.

I thought I had been ready... but now I wasn't so sure. There was something holding me back, some unknown force in the shadowed recesses of my mind warning me of a old danger that has lain in waiting patiently for some misguided soul to come along for it to sink its filthy teeth into.

Like a half remembered dream or nightmare that had forced me awake night after night, but with no clear recollection of what physical form my troubled mind had given my fear.

But whatever it was, it was holding me back. I had traveled this far and I could not back down now. Miss Ibuki could be in danger and need my help. So I had to keep going. I had to.

Looking out the window only seemed to heighten my nervousness, so I tried to keep my attention on my immediate surroundings rather than the anxiety boiling inside.

Except for a few other tired souls on the train, probably traveling home, I was alone.

Alone...

It seemed that I had always been alone. I couldn't help but let out a wistful sigh. 'If only I had thought to bring my SDAT player, but nooo. I just had to run out like an idiot. No wonder she calls me a Baka.'

Another sigh...

Giving the situation, I knew that I really was not thinking clearly. I knew that such a detached thought as picking up my SDAT would never have come to me in the panic that I had been in.

'Truthfully, what the hell would an outdated tape player have done to help save Miss Ibuki... the whole calming my tension part aside?'

The Matrix? What was it and what did it have to do with me? Hell, even Asuka and the class rep wanted to know. I still didn't get that scene back at the Misato's and the girls little talk afterwards didn't help either.

'What was that place that I had went to? What were the thoughts, those memories? And what they hell did that guy do to me?'

The silence of the train and it's lonely passengers lost in their on thoughts held no answers for me. Only at my destination's end would I found the solution to the questions that haunted me.

And so I rode on.

/WRW/

It had begun to rain.

Standing there in the middle of the street a few blocks away from Miss Ibuki's apartment complex with only my dress shirt on as the somber sky emptied itself onto me, I couldn't help but wonder if it was worth it all.

But I didn't need to grace that unspoken question with an answer. Un-pleasantries aside, I was a pilot and I had a job to do. Protecting people was what I did.

'Next time I decide to run out and go rescue someone at night, be sure to snag a coat on the way out at least, eh Ikari?' I said to my self.

I had come that far. The longer I stood there waiting in the rain, the more likely that I was going to get to her too late. And so without bothering with my rain drenched shirt, which I couldn't do anything about anyway, I hurried to Maya's place.

At first it was a few steps, but they eventually crept up a bit to something akin to a slow rush and then into a full fledged run.

Bad move.

Rain slick asphalt plus water soaked sneakers moving at high velocity equaled trouble. And trouble is what I got as my foot slipped in a deviously hidden puddle, that strangely looked a bit like LCL, but that could have just been my eyes playing tricks on me. It was dark out and the streetlights golden glow had to be the cause.

In any case, said puddle had me straining to catch my balance, which is a hard thing to do while you're still running in the rain, so I ended up half skipping, half sliding, I had long since lost control of my run and only the momentum was keeping me up, but of course that didn't last long.

I hit the ground hard, sending water spewing into the air all around me as if someone had just set off a small explosion. If I had been wet before, well... let's just say that the rain and I had become the best of pals and then lovers walking in the park hand in hand, sticking to each other like well... like water on a white dress shirt and black slacks.

Rolling myself over to get off my back and taking that quick nervous look around to see if anybody had seen my little accident was mandatory.

'Great job Ikari, great job. Hell, you haven't even gotten to the house yet and you're already on the ground. What are you going to do when you get there, splash water on the bastards? Yeah, I'm sure that'll solve the problem you rain soaked Baka.'

My subconscious supplemented for Asuka's absent form in berating myself.

There I was on my knees held up only by my hands looking at my reflection with the clouded skies and the pouring rain falling down the dark streets pelting my soaked shirt, wondering how I ended up becoming the pathetic person that I was, but I didn't get to ponder for long as I realized that the person staring back at me through the puddle at my feet was not me at all.

The image wasn't really clear and the night's murk didn't help much, but there was just enough light for me to tell the difference, I mean the face was too long and too old, the eyes the wrong color... but it was the look the held my rapt attention.

It was the same, we both held the same desperate, half dead look of men scarred by duty with the weight and hope of the world on our shoulders, whether we wanted it or not, who had the distinct perverse pleasure of seeing far too much of the darker side of life than any one ever truly needed to see.

Shutting my eyes and slamming my fist down at the distorted reflection that was not my own, I stood up as quick as possible and headed on my way, never noticing the cracks I had put in the pavement in my frustration nor the imprint my small fist left behind.

I didn't know what to make of that scene back then, but too much had happened, too fast and I had wasted enough time as it was. I had to keep moving.

/WRW/

'I should have brought a flashlight' were my first thoughts as I came into the room... but what were the odds of me knowing one would have been necessary just like with the coat and the rain.

The darkened entryway with the door ajar was a clear indication that I had arrived at the right location even without only having just returned to the place where I had gain a small amount of hope for my peculiar condition, but it didn't bode too well for favorable prospects for Miss Ibuki's safety and that's what had me unsettled.

The room wasn't deaf with silence, it was stifled by it and damn near strangled by some anonymous presence that scared even the palpable unease away.

Just standing in that place was freaking me out. But what else was eerie about the whole thing was that there did not seem to be the normal look as if a struggle had taken place and that just didn't sit with me.

Considering who was after her and their previous history, I highly doubted that Maya would have gone without a fight, but her apartment just didn't show it, yet no one could have persuaded me to deny the feeling I had that something terrible had happened there that night evidence or no evidence.

I wanted to search around for more clues but fear had me by the roots, fear and despair... despair that I had been too late for her. I didn't know what to else to do. Standing there felling as useless as I did around father, I couldn't help but be reminded that I was just a middle school kid with close to no social skills to speak of in the middle of the scene of a crime that probably would never be reported or solved.

And what the hell could I do about it.

'Those men could still be around some place even though I doubt it,' I thought. 'but then again I had also doubted that they had followed me home so no matter how cowardly it seems I can't just discount that nagging feeling telling me that I'm still in danger.'

"No!" I yelled... or tried to, but it only came out as a fierce whisper in that quiet hell. "I came this far, so I have to find some clue as to what happened to her."

"I mustn't run away. I mustn't. I failed her once, but I can't fail her twice. I just can't!"

"You know you could shout just a bit louder. That would be a sure way to get them crawling back here." a voice said from behind me, making me jump slightly.

Once again I found myself wishing I had something from home to help me out. I mean a bat would have been nice or at least an umbrella... 'something' to defend myself

'Really got to plan those rescue missions a bit better next time, Ikari.' I thought as I turned to question the other. With the dim light they only looked like a mass of moving shadow, I myself must have looked the same to them.

"Um... who... are you?" it was a weak question... no more like an offer if anything. I was scared alright! You go through what I had been through and ... whatever.

"I could ask you the same question?" the voice said evenly, throwing my question back at me, forcing my tired and frustrated mind to work up a reasonable retort.

It was around then that I actually took in the entirety of my situation. Standing there, in the middle of the night, in someone else's apartment, with the door wide open, the lights off, soaking wet and looking like a bum, it couldn't have looked any more like a robbery even without the black mask and flashlight.

"Um... i-it's not what you think." I started... more like stuttered. "I was looking for a friend, but something's happened to her and I..."

"I know." the figured replied, cutting me off.

"You do?" that shut down a few of my higher brain functions for a minute. But that only made me more suspicious. 'She could be with the people who took Maya.'

"You never answered my question before. Who the hell are you and why are you here?" I very nearly demanded. This whole day had had me on edge and I really wasn't in the mood for anymore riddles to this already whacked out puzzle.

"Do you know what happened to the women who lived here? Do you know where Maya is?"

"We don't have time for all of that. The Agents could be back any minute to get you, so we have to go now." The speaking shadow said as it turned and strode out into the night.

"Hey, wait damnit!" my angered voice followed close behind, pausing at the doorway to call her out. "We're not done yet!" I yelled.

It's probably what saved my life. The stopping that is... the yelling was probably what landed me in the situation.

But on a side note... have you ever seen a bullet being shot at close range?

I have.

The loud clap of the muzzle, the trail it leaves in its wake as the bullet cuts through the oxygen filled air, all the while spiraling toward its destination and finally the hard sting of the hit as it bites into your flesh.

It truly is an amazing experience. Painful, but amazing all the same. Of course I doubted that my mysterious visitor felt the same way about that particular ordeal at that particular time as her own blood coated her arm and the ground where she fell at my feet.

Shock held my mind for a second as I took in the scene, but hers was as free as ever it seemed as she shoved me back in the room as she dove in, bullets falling hard behind her.

My hesitation was shattered as I hit the floor. It was the enemy. The ones who took Maya. But more importantly, the ones trying to kill us. My pilot training took over and I grabbed the bleeding girl and headed for the back door.

I'm not sure I even truly realized the speaker from before was a female until hours later, but that was a whole other issue to deal with. With far too much of its own foolishness to go through that I was only just beginning to get a glimpse of.


	5. Preistly Thoughts

Priestly Thoughts +

/AN: Yes, its time for some of that world class Author Notes! from yours truly.

/priest/

I'm sorry for anyone you reading this who actually thought that I was really going to post a chapter... but my chapter every two and a half months deadline isn't over yet, so... anyway.

Obviously I took my time on this one so it's going to a bit long, and I mean long. It just wouldn't have felt if I had split them up. Did a lot of revising, rewriting and whatnot. Had some things I wanted to add, subtract... multiply, and you know, get that whole division thing going.

My main obstacle was in trying to keep Mr. Ikari from being too Krunk. Yeah, yeah this is the first fight sequence and all and the Matrix is known for its fights but this is Shinji 'I wish I had a spine' Ikari here, so getting the fights right while staying in Shinji mode was a bit of a hassle.

BUT! I believe I've done a fairly good job of it. AND! if I haven't please tell a brother so I can fix it after I post the chapter which should be out soon.

That aside, lets hear from our readers. Now standing by live on the scene is our Pseudo-News Anchor, Misato Katsuragi.

misa: Well, Priest the general census off the boards is that this story kicks some serious ass.

bmatsea says "wow" and Deus X Machina says "This is a great idea for a fic. I like how you managed to stay faithful to both the EVA and Matrix worlds."

priset: that's great Misato. Things seem to be going well.

misa: yes they are Priest, but there are a few instances that the readers didn't get.

priest: Really, like what?

misa: well, X3RO2 had this to say.

"Bravo! Bravo I must say!  
Quite a fine piece of work you have going on here.  
I must say that this story is perfect.  
But, that one scene with the elevator got me quite confused.  
Was hikari already in the elevator?  
Oh well, keep up the good work."

and Cyber-Undead had something similar in mind.

"Just a little tid-bit note: that scene at the elevator is a bit confusing, I couldn't tell at first what was happening to Shinji all along, for a lack of better descriptions about the events taking place."

misa: so, Priest, what do you have to say for yourself?

priest: uh... well, you see... It was all Shinji's fault. I had nothing to do with it. If he can't learn to stop stuttering and explain things better so that people can understand him...

misa: he never stuttered during that scene priest.

priest: um... sure he did. you just didn't catch it, that's all.

misa: for love of alcohol and Yebisu, just answer the question you twit!

priest: fine, fine. No Hikari wasn't in the elevator and neither was Asuka. They were both just standing in front of the door waiting for Shinji. or at least... that's what it was supposed to be. Shinji was just caught off guard then and was further unnerved when he got to the bottom floor only to have the doors open to see an Agent waiting outside for him.

anything else of interest Misato?

misa: a few things. A number of readers have expressed their gratitude for putting Lt Ibuki as one of the major characters. And FireDragonBL seems to think it funny that Maya drinks.

priest: Ha! BL... sigh. Well I am a Maya fan, so...

misa: uh-oh.

priest: what, now?

misa: well.. did you even read dennisud's review?

priest: dennisud review my piece? SWEET! haha!

misa: did you even hear what I said?

priest: what? Oh, no... not really. why are you looking at me like that? Hey, put that penguin down! Hey, hey , ow... oww, damnit women! OW! Come on Misato, it was just a joke. I was merely captivated by your beauty.

misa: really?

priest: ... yeah... sure. Maya's cooler anyway.

misa: what was that?

priest: what, nothing, it was nothing.

misa: it had better be, anyway, back to the point.

priest: oh yeah... dennisud read my piece! let's see what he said. Hmm...

ah crap, Rei. forgot about that part... damn. Then again, I kinda forgot about Rei all together. How do you forget about your favorite character, really though? ... sigh.

anyway... I guarantee that more of the rest of the Eva clan will show up in the 4th and 5th chapters. Things really should be kicking off from here and a lot will be explained in the next few chapters. Which should be out in ... how ever long it takes me to finish revising it.

misa: next month...

Priest: I heard that. you want to get fired.

misa: you don't even pay me you ass.

priest: ... oh yeah. hehe. let's just omit that part.

misa: has it even occured to you that it's taken you 4 chapters just to answer your readers questions?

priest: no, no it has and I would be greatful if you wouldn't bring it up again.

/AN


	6. on the run Pt 1

AN: yeah... this is late I know but I've been busy. Besides, the way I had it this whole chapter was like 130 pages long before I went over it and realised I couldn't turn it all in. I didn't even think about page lengthsuntilrecently. Anyway...Chapter 5willcome in there parts and I'm still working on part 3

I you feel I haven'tkept Shinji in character, TELL ME! I need to know before I move on to the next chapters.

/Priest/

/0.5: on the run Part 1/

The night sky was gloomier than usual, making the alleyway's shadows that much more darker, the moonlight playing tricks with the light, casting sinister figures in the murky gloom, but it didn't matter. He needed the darkness, he trusted it to mask his get away, even though he knew the ones after him would probably not be effected by anything so mundane as the simple absence of proper lighting.

He had seen what they were capable of and so, held no reservations as to what they couldn't do.

None the less, he ran on, snaking along the twist and turns of the city's less finer thoroughfares with only the night sky as his cover, mainly because he had no choice. Escape was his only option.

Trying to take the enemy head on was suicidal and he couldn't afford to die yet. There were too many things left undone, too many questions unanswered, too many souls unsaved.

And apparently... only he could save them.

The heaven's must have been laughing their asses off.

In any case time was not on his side, but of course, then again, time had never been on his side. He had no clue how he was to accomplish the daunting task that he had been burdened with, even as the full weight of the knowledge of his fate and that of the world's threatened to bury his thin frame.

Silently he questioned the heavens, wondering as to how things could have ended up the way they had. This was not the path that his life had been heading down before, it was not the life he had wanted. The whole savoir bit was not his to take. There had to have been a mistake, a mis-punch, a typo somewhere in the paperwork... somewhere.

It also wasn't every day someone came up to you and said 'Hey, you're here to save the world' twice, 'Oh and even though the odds are stacked against you, we probably can't help you, but there's no one else who can get it done so... good luck.'

What do you say to that? How are you supposed to react?

And save it from what?' There were too many sides, too many dangers. So much had happened and it had happened so fast, and he hadn't had time to think. And then the enemy had appeared to break up their little orientation and all hell had broken lose, or was it heaven?

Who knew?

The non descript pistol he carried was on its last clip, the others having been wasted early on during the initial gun fight.

The night air blew harder as the young man threw back a quick sarcastic, damn near desperate bark of a laugh that sounded more like a high pitched squeak at the thought of him in a gun fight. Guns were not his thing. Truthfully, shooting someone was something that he had never thought he would ever have to experience.

Not him, he wasn't a soldier, not really. Hell he wasn't even a fighter, but with the current circumstances he would just have to do what was necessary to survive.

Whatever that meant?

There was another path up ahead at the next bind. And just as he made the turn, pieces of the brink wall beside his head exploded from the flying death that man had labeled as a bullet, which had him as its intended target.

Apparently the enemy had caught up to him. There was even less time now than there had been before. Not wasting another second he ran on, harder and faster, desperately trying to escape.

Objectively, he fancied why he didn't just take the blue pill and fall into blissfully oblivion. The agents didn't even give him a chance to take the red one, yet they were still chasing him.

Bastards.

It was still in his breast pocket even now and he briefly thought of tossing it, but that wouldn't have solved anything. That little red capsule was most likely the only help he would get. No... he couldn't get rid of it that easy, at least not yet.

The young boy couldn't help but feel like he was on a roller coaster, a carnival ride gone terribly wrong, one that had gone up for a upside down spin and while the tram had continued on its safe track, he had been left behind, far behind, falling to the ground on his own... all alone.

Always alone.

05: set me free Part 1

I ducked inside a nick in the wall of an old office building somewhere in old Tokyo that looked as if it should have been condemned a decade ago, hidden behind a pair of dumpsters in another dark and dank alleyway.

There had been so many, blurring in and out of my vision that I had forgotten which way I had come. They all looked so similar, but everything looked that way in the dark. And it wasn't as if I had actually been paying special attention to which one I had ran down in my haphazard flight.

Only the motivation that I needed to get away and that if I didn't get a chance to catch my breath soon I would die of suffocation rather than a well placed bullet in the back, drove me.

I had taken all of three deep gulps of air before two darkly dressed men who looked fresh out of the office cubicles, burst down the alley, bumping the two heavy industrial made dumpsters a bit and sending them skidding down the opposite end of the path to slam into the nearby wall with little difficulty.

Neither seemed to care much about that though, and they didn't seem hurt at all. I knew that nothing that simple would put them down. One of them had been hit by a car during the beginning of our merry little chase and it didn't phase them one bit. But at that particular moment the dumpsters were the farthest thing from my mind.

Truthfully, keeping my racing heart from beating too loudly and alerting the demons to my presence was my all consuming mission in life as my mind thought up all kinds of strategies to hold my breath and keep those bastard from noticing me.

The weight of the gun in my waist was a burden that I didn't want but one that was beginning to oppress me with its function. Briefly I thought of pulling it out and using it for it's intended purpose, but I struggled hard to keep my hands as far away form it as possible.

It would only give away my position.

Cloop

Cloop

Cloop

Cloop

The steady beat of the heel of their tailored shoes hitting the pavement, still wet from the moody storm clouds hanging precariously above almost as if they were threatening to pour forth their wares once more if provoked, sang throughout the alley, ringing in triple time to my frantic heart beat.

Cloop

Cloop

Cloop

Cloop

They were close now, their fierce gazes peering deep into the ebony cloak of my quickly found hiding spot's barely concealing shadows as their shades caught the faint shimmer of the city's lights, adding a heady gleam to their already dangerous look.

Cloop

Cloop

Cloop

Cloop

They were very close now, close enough that I could practically smell the acrid scent of the grease in their perfectly manicured hair, the heavy starch that was used on their impossibly pressed suits and the almost stoic yet corporate malevolence of their presence coming off in waves, hanging over them like a musty cologne that threatened to overwhelm my sense.

No, a mere bullets would do nothing to my enemy, not unless they were blessed by God or something, ordained to smite down with heavenly vengeance upon this nondescript villainy that stalked the streets of Tokyo 3.

I briefly thought of the irony of me asking help from god. 'Would he even offer me any if I did ask? What would that mean for the Angel slayer to get help from the Angel's Master, was that not blasphemy?'

The dark skies above offered no answers and the enemy still stood, their evil undiscovered by God's eyes.

It had to have been only a few seconds truthfully from the time it took them to come into the alley, take a look around and then continue on their murderous way, but you know how time gets when you're in those type of situations, it felt like hours since I had drawn a breath.

And right when I went to do as such, the last of the trio showed up and damn near made me piss myself as I franticly wrapped my hands over my mouth in an attempt to keep myself from expelling that last bit of air that would herald the demise of my mortality.

But luckily a car passed by the entrance of the alley, splashing water in its wake, just as the barest of squeaks was able to escape my hated orifice, eclipsing the sound.

The Agent, having found no sign of me, headed off to join his compatriots, his heavy foot steps echoing behind as it went on its way. I gave it a full five minutes before I took another step out and then headed back the way the Agent had come. Heading forward again would be death, that was as sure as Asuka bragging about her pilot skills and Rei not liking meat.

And as I made my way to any destination away from the enemy I had to wonder what had led me down this path.

/WRW/three nights before / Maya Ibuki's apartment

There hadn't been a back door to get out of Miss Ibuki's apartment and for a second there I figured we were done for while I listened to the enemy coming through the front, their footsteps were as loud as my heartbeat, but out of the corner of my eye I noticed a slightly opened window.

There was no time for hesitation as I pulled the wounded girl with me up to it, but when I tried to open it, the damn thing decided that it preferred its current position. That didn't last long and after a few well placed, frustrated bangs, the thing let up and we were out in the wind.

Luckily we were on the first floor, so there was no trouble concerning that case, even though I had pushed the girl out head first and her loud umpf alerted me to the situation right before my own head made contact with the ground.

This time it was my companion who pulled me up while I shook the stars out of my head. 'That blow must have woken her up.' I thought as we made our escape, the enemy not far behind.

For some time my world was only a series of twists and turns, side streets and alleyways, all blurring together along with the frequent gun shots filtering around us and the sound of our heavy breathing as the rain still poured down on our unprotected heads.

One particular shot had come just a bit too close as we made one of our latest turns, running full speed for the opening out into the street, right into the waiting claws of an ominous black colored sedan that just happened to stop right in front of us to block our path.

It was almost an afterthought to jump the car's hood.

And yes... I did say jump its hood. I'm not sure what came over me, but there had been no time and room as my companion made a rolling dive over the thing, that had to have killed her wounded arm and with me running in time with her, waiting for my turn would have earned me that bullet in the back I had so feared.

So, I jumped it. Clean over too. I would have taken a second to marinate on that fact if not for the girls quick tug that saved me from the fist about to impact with my face, but it couldn't stop the other one that exploded in my gut and sent me flying.

The pain had been intense, rivaled only be my time within EVA. A few tears threatened to brake free but they never got the chance as I was hauled to my feet by my hair, distracting my mind from its previous pain with the new agony my scalp was receiving.

I didn't even feel the hit. One second my brain was screaming at me to do 'SOMETHING' to get myself out of the bastard who held me's grasp, but the next time I could open my eyes, more like sqint, I was stuck in a wall.

And yes, again, I didn't stutter, there was no mistake, no mistype. I was stuck in a wall. My body had in fact been wedged into the brick from the impact, but because of the amazing force of the blow, gravity had been too afraid to allow me to fall. It obviously had seen what the enemy had done and it wanted no parts of that kind of trouble.

My aching back could sympathize, so I didn't blame it for running like a scared bitch. I was starting to understand what Maya had been talking about, concerning the Matrix and being able to break the rules. What the suited man had just done to me clearly went against a few of Newton's Laws.

More peculiar abstract thoughts, this had been a day for them. A day for strange thoughts and strange dealings, my current position a testament to that.

But sadly, because of my position I had a perfect vantage point to witness the thrashing of my newly acquired and soon to be deceased compatriot as the bastards ganged up on her. Beating away half heartedly at her tired and weaken punches. Still, with my vision, hazy from the impossible pain from my back and the steady decline of any rational thought, I could tell that things were racing down hill for us and fast

Yet, even with the rain pouring down on her, soaking her clothes and being seriously out numbered and injured, the girl fought on, her mind still trying to survive in the bizarre contest the not so normal men had turned their fight into.

Every defense she put up was broken through, every punch she threw was blocked, and every kick avoided, so when she went for an uppercut, I was positively waiting for them to catch her even as I was silently rooting for her through the tears clouding my eyes and the agony in my side, but my forlorn misgivings were mistaken as the Suit backed away from the blow and made ready to take her down, but she had other plans as she immediately dropped to the ground, sweeping his feet out from under him and laying the bastard low.

She had time for only one good blow, a quick kick to the man's ribs before the others were on to her. There must have been some serious emotion behind that kick or that the girl new more about breaking the rules than I did because that quick rib check of hers sent the enemy skidding into the nearest concrete wall, putting a good size dent in its foundation.

Either I was going delusional or the girl just had skill, but skill just wasn't enough in this case as the other two reached her, one grabbing her arms while his co-part rained down punches on her at impossible speeds only to back hand her into the other waiting darkly dressed form, who had made an amazing recovery from his visit from the wall, for a well placed kick that sent her hard to her knees as I watched, helpless, from the sideline.

I had never gotten a good look at them at Maya's place, so I could never make a guess as to their numbers, but the three business men just didn't seem like they would have the strength to do what they had just done to me and the way they held the girl up as if they were about to ...

"No!" My horse scream stopped them in their tracks as they each turned those blank shaded gazes my way and off of the young women they held over their heads preparing to break her back. I had no doubts that her spine would snap instantly like a helpless technician's will while trying to explain to the Commander why Unit 01 wouldn't be ready in time for the next Angel attack.

"I won't let you harm her! I won't let you hurt anyone again!"

I must have looked a sorry sight stuck up there on that wall, blood flowing freely on my lips, dust coating my wet clothes, screaming down defiance's like I could actually do anything to stop them from killing her and then starting in on me.

But I was to be damned if I was just going to just sit there... stick... or whatever and just do nothing. 'At least I can give her time to get away.' I thought as the men tossed the girl to the street corner with all the enthusiasm of a garbage man tossing a bag of rubbish into the truck.

Personally, I believed the garbage man would have done it with a bit more feeling than the almost lifeless demons that were stalking toward my way had.

"The other is one of the rebels."

"Yes, but she is not the original target."

"No, she is irrelevant."

"Only the target matters."

"Only his destruction matters."

"Only if he does not comply."

"He will be made to comply."

"He is after all..."

"... only human."

Hearing that little bit of commentary didn't really help my nerves as I struggled to get down and at least try to put up a fight this time. I wasn't even able to think of hitting them before, but I wouldn't stand idly this round and take their hits. I wasn't anyone's little toy to be played with.

Strange words coming from me, I know, but truthfully I was fed up with being used and abused by others. Even though I didn't show it, the strain of taking everyones crap weighed heavily on my conscious, the pressure building and building until unleashed, resulting in a brief and I stress brief, appearance of my assumed non-existent spine.

This was one of those instances.

What was even more strange was that in the face of my 'destruction' as one of the Agents had so eloquently put, I wasn't sure which one cause they all looked so similar, so uniform, like manufactured devils, something that Maya had said back at her place kept repeating itself in my head, blocking out the staggering fear boiling in my gut as my anger tried to replace it and the stabbing misery, the throbbing ache of my wound.

_the Matrix itself is only there to bind us, restrict us... _

_It's a cage Shinji, the Matrix is a trap to imprison us behind daily routines, confined hours and convenient social beliefs. Its a prison for our minds."_

'Bind me, restrict me... like father and Nerv, like this wall.'

_If we knew what the Matrix was, we'd figure out how to use it, how to go beyond such heavy boundaries as oh.. I don't know, say gravity._

'Gravity...?'

"Gravity?" I said out loud, which only earned me a few weird looks from my soon to be tormentors. "Ah... yes. Gravity."

I'm not sure how it happened, or how it started, it just... did. But while I was there, stuck up there, alone and doomed, I began to see things... feel ... things that I shouldn't have been able to.

The code.

It kept flashing before my eyes, like someone flicking a light switch on and off in my head, changing my perception each time, connecting me deeper and deeper into the green tinged world that had driven me to the brink of insanity and was about to led me to my death.

But every time it flashed, I could feel more of my surroundings, more of my world... that moment was the first time that I began to think of the Matrix as 'My world, My domain.' There was power in those brief moments when the world turned into a computer programmers wet dream and any sane person's nightmare, a power that threatened to overwhelm me.

I had long since forgotten about the suited men. My entire being was lost in the unseen world that only I could see. And while I was there, I learned one thing. And it was simple. So very simple.

I didn't have to be bound.

I didn't have to be restricted.

I didn't have to be held back by anyone, for any reason, any longer.

And I... believed it.

The suits must have felt it, or seen it in my eyes. I wasn't sure, but truthfully, I really didn't care right then.

"Gravity..." it was all around, its code filtered around the walls, the street, the men, the girl... it framed my own code as well. The code, I had once tried to explain it to Maya before back at her place but it was too complex and I didn't really know where to began. So like I said early, I didn't know what the symbols meant, but I did understand them and if just barely, I knew that I could control it somehow.

The images in my head were very sure on that, if not clear as to how, though. But it didn't matter. I would just have to... improvise.

"Gravity..." I said again, and the force that had abandoned me earlier came back with tremendous power and swept the suits away and much of the wall that had held me with them.

Three heavy bodies slammed into the side of a black sedan that didn't seem so ominous anymore. That blow would have floored any normal person, but I knew those men were far from normal. Their code... their cold, lifeless, sterile ciphers, it disgusted me. Very little of it resembled anything close to being human and it showed in the way the spoke, in the way the moved, in the way acted. They were abominations and their continued existence was bothering the hell out of me.

So... I proceeded with the systematic 'destruction' of their souls... if they even had souls.

/WRW/

The flash of the thunder clouds drew me back to the present. My mind must have been on auto mode because I hadn't even realized how far I had gone since my brief lapse into the past. I was going to have to watch that if I was going to survive.

'Can't be caught in a daze like that again, Ikari. It could be the end of us.'

Us... I had been subconsciously speaking that way for sometime now unknowingly. What bothered me about it was that, there were times when the words in my head, were spoken in another voice other than my own, one that seemed hauntingly familiar that I just couldn't place. Maybe because it didn't just seem like one voice, but more of a collection of entities who were all of the same whole.

Weird... I know, but it was just like with the code before, I just didn't think about it for fear I would lose what little sanity I had left, a number that seemed to be getting exponentially smaller everyday now.

There was a flash and soon thunder sounded over the city as I strove to keep my internal rants just that... internal.

Currently I was on the roof of a series of buildings, a strip of some sort. I dimly remember traveling this way for some time after the alleyways had ended in nothing but wide open streets. There was no one out, it being so late as it was, but that was that. I'm not sure how I got on the roof, but the roof is where I ended up, but it was nothing more than a hazy memory now and parts of it seemed as if it belonged to someone else.

That was starting to get on my nerves. Not only did I have to deal with weirdos like the Agents after me but the continued onslaught of barely understood memories from a past that I never lived. I may be Asian but I didn't believe in reincarnation, so for those 'Zion' people to go and tell me that I'm some hero reborn again here to save to the world was completely out there.

It must have been those pills they kept taking. The blue ones no doubt and who the hell knew what the red one did.

Whatever. I had to get home. It had been two days since I ran out searching for Miss Ibuki and Misato was going to kick my ass back and forth around the apartment when she got her hands on me. I had seen her mad before and that was just because Pen Pen had stolen all of her beer that one time, even though the penguin was merely getting payback for that impromptu pinching session my purple haired Mistress had initiated. If she'd lose it over a few beer cans, what would she do about a missing pilot who hasn't been home in nearly three nights without a word.

Even after what I had just gone through, facing an angry Major Katsuragi was not something that I really wanted to get involved in.

But first, I needed to get off of this stupid roof.

The girl from before ... what was her name? Devine, I think it was. She had said that I could leap across buildings and I thought I heard someone say something about dodging bullets, but that had to have been a joke, I mean, come on... dodging bullets. That's crazy talk.

Then again, if I could jump buildings, why couldn't I dodge bullets.

That lady Trinity had nodded when I looked to her during all of that I guess in answer to my wordless question.

'Trinity... ' my thoughts on her were a bit jumbled and disjointed. I kept finding myself staring at her at odd times, but it was the feelings of love I got when I looked at her that got to me. I mean... I don't even know that word, love. It's like some fictional tale or a faint dream that makes no sense when you wake up, but whatever the reason I needed none of it.

And if it wasn't for that other thing... But I'm not going into that.

'That lady freaks me out a bit and she reminds me of my father. So cold, well, except to Devine, but she was her daughter after all. Still, that's got to be one strange family, but who am I to talk.' All thoughts of family died with that, any mention of father always had that effect.

The wind blew its delicate caresses against my pale skin, reminding me of the time. I needed to be off. But my mind continued to focus on the events of the past few days, their significance still heavily in my thoughts.

'Devine... she reminds me of Rei. And that girl Mana... what was her problem? At first she's all smiles and giggles but then she's like a viper snapping in my face. I swear between Asuka and her who needs enemies. The Angels can just sit back and watch.'

But enemies I did have. I had taken the Agents on before, but I wondered if I could do so again, or if that night had just been a fluke.

/WRW/ three nights prior

They were in the way. I didn't know what they were called then, only that they were the enemy and that they had to be taken care of or I would never get my life back.

I was back on that street corner, with the girl Devine. I didn't know her name then either, but that didn't matter. I was more focused on the suited men steadily rising from the ruins of their car.

'We always seem to attract the impossible enemies don't we. Angels, Agents... Asuka. I swear man.'

One of them, dusted himself off, as if being blown into a motor vehicle was just another part of his day's work. I took it as a lesson.

'These are not normal men. They will not go down easily. I should treat them like any Angel who's powers I don't know. Come on Ikari, lets make Misato proud and use what we've learned from our other battles. Sure they aren't 40 stories tall and can't level whole cities alone, but they are just as evil and they are definitely creatures from another world.' I thought to myself as I mentally prepared for the coming fight.

The rain had not stopped it's steady downpour since I had gotten off of the train to Maya's. Lightning flashed in the back as thunder screamed in its echo as the storm let its fury out onto Tokyo 3. Its plentiful droplets gaining weight and numbers while they began to fall heavily onto what men called the fortress city, seeming to cast the world into a fog of mist and shadow.

A perfect setting for a terrible night that the Agents seemed all to eager to exploit.

After they had straighten themselves out, their soaked clothes of no concern, they began to stalk back toward me, their dark shades boring hard into my core as they calmly prepared to take me on.

But I was calm as well. I might have thought it bizarre, but I held no fear toward those men, not then. Later perhaps, but not then. Right at that moment with the raging downpour beating against my unprotected self standing rebellious and bold in the face of my foe, I was the Invincible Shinji Ikari, designated pilot of Unit 01 and I was fully planning on showing the enemy what an Angel Slayer could do as I got into a readied stance that I half remembered from my brief episode in combat training so long ago along with some other barely remembered poses from the obscure sea of memories lost in my head.

The scene most have looked like one of those action movies that Kensuke and Toji had always dragged me to see, the hero standing defiantly against his many enemies as they circled about him, closing in for the kill.

It was the one to the right who started the whole mess. His slightly greased brown hair was the only significant difference I could discern him from the others as he threw a punch that served as a signal for the others to initiate their own attacks.

Dodging the brown haired man's punch was my first action, but out of the corner of my eye I saw the one to the left come in a for jab at my ribs while his friend in the middle was trying to kick my feet out from under me.

Time was an issue and I didn't have enough of it to dodge all of their blows individually, so I improvised by ducking the first punch while spinning off to the right around the brown guys fist, effectively getting out of range of the other's hits and giving me a chance for my own as I struck the fool who swung at me with a elbow to the back and gave the punk in the middle a sweeping kick to the face.

I didn't even know my leg could reach that high. This wasn't like with Eva and I could just imagine the mecha doing what I wanted it to do, this was my body and I was pretty sure that it had limits. That roundhouse to the other man's face and the speed of which I threw the four, no, five was it?... hits I gave to him before he was out of range were part of those limits.

It was almost as if it wasn't me fighting them, but the men didn't give me time to ponder that out as they came back harder as if my blows hadn't effected them. I was able to block three, I wasn't sure who's they were because of the seven or eight that did make it through and the fact that I was lying right next the girl from before some ways away from where I should have been took the chance to find out away from me.

Dimly I saw her skim away, dragging one of her legs along. It must have been injured, but the man lifting me off of the ground held most of my attention.

There was something about those shades of his that were bothering me. I didn't know what it was at the time, but I suspect it was that they reminded me of father or someone from my past about a similar man with dark shades, an ear piece and a sinister smirk, saying something about how I had 'set him free'

Whatever it was sparked a lose wire and a part of me from deep inside struck out against it. My knee shattering his grill, shades, cheek and jaw bones alike.

I had said that there was a power in the Matrix, and I meant every word. Gravity was my friend and I was going to use him to my best advantage.

The others were coming so just as my feet hit the pavement I clipped the man who held me's feet out from under him and did this amazing move that I'm still surprised about.

'Gravity.'

As the other two came in to press their attack and while I was still in the motion of finishing my clipping move I... I guess you could say I defied gravity or the Matrix... no... the real world. One minute I was on the ground the next I was in the air doing this spinning kick move at an odd angle at about half of the Agents height. . Now these were grown men and they were more than twice my height, like somewhere near 5.8, so I knew that actually jumping that high and at the angle the way I did it and the speed at which I did it was clearly impossible, but I didn't really care right then.

The fool in front was the first to catch one of my soaking sneakers in the face and a second in the chest. I must have given the blow an extra bit of force because it sent him and his friend who didn't have time to dodge out of the way right back into that battered car of theirs.

Right as they crashed through the side doors I landed just like that action hero from that movie. In my own green shaded world I felt the one behind me getting up, but I didn't give him time to as I did a sweeping back kick to his face that lifted him up, right in the path of my second roundhouse of the day.

His body flew in the opposite direction as his friends but with equal or more power as he impacted with the street while leaving a trail behind him, tearing deep furrows in the ground as asphalt caved in under the pressure of his passing.

I probably would have continued after them if the girl hadn't grabbed my arm and pulled me away at a lurching run.

"You can not beat them, even as you are now." Her soft voice was horse as she spoke, but her fierce glare told me not to argue as she lead me away.

"You sure about that. I'm pretty sure that they aren't going to get up for awhile." It was a cocky thing to say, considering who I was and who those men were. But I was new to all of this. I didn't know what an Agent was or what they were capable of. I wonder how I would have fared knowing that they had been seriously holding back in an attempt to capture me.

Hell, I probably would have shit my pants.

...sigh.

But the only answer I got from the mysterious girl was another frosty stare that effectively shut me up as we made or way to some unknown destination that she refused to tell.

/WRW/ the present

Misato's...

I thought about ringing the door bell, but that was probably a bad idea. Evidently, I had made it home, but just as before, I remembered none of it. The past had held my thoughts tightly in its grasp the whole trip there.

The steady downpour outside set the backdrop for the scene, playing an ancient tune that would continue on through the ages unchanged... if the world survived the war that is.

I stood there for some time, just trying to gather the courage to open the door. Even given what I had been through, I could not shake the feeling of dread the cold door held over me.

This was the first real home that I had ever known. To lose it would be a tremendous tragedy that I doubted I would ever be able to come back from. What would I do without Misato, Rei, and Hikari, Toji and Ken?

What would I do without Asuka?

'Asuka...'

It was my motto not to think about the brash German girl. Her enigma was just too strong for me. Every time I thought I understood a little about her, like quick sliver, she up'd and changed, usually leaving me stunned and dazed in a corner trying to figure out what just happened.

My feelings for her were just as jumbled and nearly as treacherous. There were times when I hated her and the very air she breathed and other times... I ... sigh. I didn't know what to think about with Asuka, so keeping her out of my thoughts had become standard procedure. Didn't always work, but well, it was my only defense.

Rei on the other hand had always been a stable mystery, a secure ambiguity with an acute vagueness that I had no hope of penetrating except for those brief moments when she would open up to give me a glimpse into her scarlet eyes and the almost innocent heart beneath.

Ayanami and Sohryu, two names that were, as far as I was concerned, synonymous with headaches, confusion, extreme blushes and trouble. But companionship followed, along with duty and understanding as well.

We each knew so very little about each other, yet somehow we were the only ones who 'could' understand one another.

No one every said the Matrix made sense. And it seemed the Real World was no different.

Yet in the end I was still stumped as my hand twitched, clinching and unclenching in time to my inward debate.

'I'm here aren't I. I might as well go in. It's not like I can run forever.'

'Yeah, but she's going to kill me. It's been two days since she's heard from us. Two days!'

'Who cares. If I don't go in now, when will I ever go in? And it's not like I can stay out here forever. Those Agents will find me eventually?'

'All the more reason to stay as far away as possible. What if they come for us while Asuka and Misato are home?'

'What if they do it while I'm not? Will it matter?'

My subconscious had no answer to that one. If I stayed, the girls might be in danger and if I left they could still be in danger and there would be no way for them to fight off the Agents. But maybe if I hung around, I could... could...

'What protect them? Ha! you can barely protect yourself, Ikari. And you're supposed to be special.'

...sigh.

Asuka and Misato they were special in their own right, but they weren't like me, they couldn't fight this evil and they knew not a thing about the Matrix. I knew barely anything at all but at least it was something.

I had to stay.

I had to...

"You going to stand there all night, or are you going in." a voice said from my left, shaking me out of my little reverie, but the quick glance to my left nearly gave me a heart attack.

"What! Aghh... M-Misato!" She was still in her Nerv uniform and looked bone tired, but the look in her eyes was anything but asleep.

"Well, well, well, you actually remember my name. I'm surprised seeing as I haven't seen you in a while. I would have thought we were strangers or something the way you've been acting of late, Mr. Ikari."

"It's not like that Misa..."

"No! You don't have the right to call me that anymore, Pilot! For here on out it's Major Katsuragi to you, do you understand?"

Slowly, I nodded my assent. The moment she called me pilot broke my heart, but another quick glance showed that Misato shared my pain. It must have hurt her, my leaving and all, without a phone call in the two whole days that I was away.

You'd think I'd been away for weeks on end from the way she was acting, but then again, you could say figuratively the way I had been so closed up in the past, I 'had' been away weeks on end.

...sigh.

There was nothing to do but go in and Misato... I mean the Major followed. She may have been mad at me, but it didn't matter in the larger scheme of things. I had to stay or else something worse might happen to them. And I couldn't let that happen. So I had to stay.

I had to...


	7. on the run PT2

AN: This is obviously part 2. Obviously.

No, seriously. It's part 2. You know... the one that comes after part 1. Really... really. I'm not kidding you. This is part 2.

well, at least, I think it is... or it was supposed to be.

/priest/

/0.5 on the run Part 2/

Morning came like a sledge hammer, slamming into my slumbering mind with the patience of a angry rhino that was freakishly reminiscent of Unit 1, horn and all.

The overly bright light that filtered through my window blinded my still sensitive eyes as the annoying ringing of my alarm clock blared through the fog that was my sleep incrusted mind somewhere to my left.

I briefly had a vision of getting up, grabbing the pistol I had stored under my pillow the night before, in my attempt to hide it from Misato, and unloading on the damn time keeping device, but that would have been foolish, so I ignored it and throw my other pillow over my head to block the noise.

That never does anything, does it? If anything, the blasted thing seemed to blare even louder, screaming its infernal message to the sleeping world that 'it was time the wake up and if you don't get up now I'll guarantee that by the time you do get up you'll be so pissed off you'll wish you had just taken that small amount of energy and just GOTTEN UP AND TURNED ME THE FUCK OFF!'

And believe me, the message had gotten through, but I was far more annoyed than that. I mean I had been out all night getting chased and shot at. So it wasn't that much of a surprise when I did leaped out of bed with that pistol I was talking about earlier aimed dead at the stupid machine, but it 'was' a surprise when I noticed Asuka staring between me and the gun in my hand from the doorway.

"Uh... it's not what you think." I said in reflex as I tried and failed to hide the weapon behind my back as the alarm clock continued to spew its toxic into the airwaves in the background.

Strangely, the German girl said not a word and had been unusually quiet at breakfast and most of the way to school, which had me worried a bit. I couldn't tell if she had been mad, afraid, weirded out or what?

Silence was not a term that fit well in a description of Asuka Langley Sohryu.

Clouds hung overhead that day like nice fluffy marsh-mellows. The kind that you see in the art books and post cards, all big and puffy, gliding through the sea of pale blue and the hungry yellow, the perfect type. It was a scene to make any one of those over zealously kawaii people you always meet on the street at the wrong time go into ecstatic seizures of joy.

You know those type of people right, you've met them? They've got those wide open eyes and that huge, it's got to be bordering on sadistically blissful, smile. The ones who are just a little 'too' happy at times, and for no explainable reason either. They're merely getting high on life and all that bullshit.

And besides just the usual unease that you get from being around anyone else who's happier than you for more than two minutes when your life has been riding on the bullet train to sucksville for sometime lately, these 'extra kawaii' types come along and give you that 'o...k... I think I need to either start running or ask for a hit of whatever they're smoking' feeling.

It was just one of those days

The clouds over head should have been an omen. And I guess I did sorta take it as one as I tried to keep an extra eye out for the those fantastically kawaii weirdos. I'm sorry, but I always get this weird, almost uncontrollable urge to kick them in the balls when they come around. It took all of my concentration, hands clenching and unclenching while my feet gave a little twitch, just to keep myself under control while they rattled on and on about how GREAT! the world was that day.

Maybe that's just me, I don't know.

Weirdos aside, I should have been paying more attention to the heavens. Never say god doesn't give you clues. Just like the Angel Alarm, the deep grays forming beneath the underbellies of the clouds belied the perfect picture.

I should have been paying more attention... but between Asuka, the clouds, my troubled mind, worry for the weirdos and about another half dozen other useless bits of info that didn't deserve the brain power it took to bring up them up.

Except maybe that high school girl who just walked by who decided to were her shorter skirt on this windy day with those thighs, and that those calves. Hmm... maybe that one was worth it... or I had been spending too much time with Kensuke and Toji than I needed to... maybe a bit of both.

A frown found it's way to my face though as we continued on our way in silence. I knew that if it had Asuka in that skirt, heads would have turned, lips would have curled, whistles would have been heard and there'd be enough paramedics in the area to service three hospitals when she was done with them.

I was still stumped as to why she hadn't acted up until then. It wasn't her way. I knew that my German room mate would eventually act out and no doubt give me hell for that morning, but when? Where? And how much was it going to hurt?

My hands unconsciously covered my crotch out of reflex. My crotch was on very familiar terms with the red head's foot. Not good terms, but terms none the less.

We were half way there before she acted. And acted she did. One minute I was giving side long looks at the girl, while casting quick yet discrete looks out for those people with the huge smiles, and the next thing I knew she was in my face dragging me into an alley with one hand stretched out to the side of my head to block my escape as her crystal blues stared hard into my Ocean blues.

'Not again' I couldn't help but think as we entered the narrow path. Me and alleys ways just didn't have good history.

Honestly I had no idea what the hell was going on and apparently I wasn't the only one.

"What the hell is going on Third?"

See what I mean?

"Um... what are you...?"

"Don't! Don't. I don't what to hear any bullshit, Ikari. Three nights ago you looked like you saw your mothers killer, got some S2 guy pissed off and then ran off looking for Miss Ibuki, who hasn't shown up for work either in two days and now, here you are this morning with a gun ready to blow the mechanical brains out of a stupid alarm clock. So tell me Mister Ikari, you tell me right now, what the hell is going on here?"

She said all of this with that same fierce expression on her face as she stared me in the eyes. And then in a quieter voice that left me stunned she asked what was really on her mind.

"What is the Matrix Shinji? What does it all mean and why do I keep having these weird dreams about it?" Her head dropped a bit, her eyes shaded by her reddish auburn mane.

"D-Dreams?"

I was stunned for a moment. 'Dreams...' I had been having weird flashes and sometimes dreams of people and places that didn't make sense either, but could they have been about the Matrix? Neo aside, could the others have been related as well? They all seemed so similar as if they were Neo, or someone(s) like him. I had never had the chance to ask miss Trinity back when they were explaining things, so I couldn't know for sure.

"I... I don't know about your dreams Asuka. I can barely figure out my own." I finished in a quieter voice.

"But what about the Matrix? I know you know what it is. You gave away as much before you departed that day Misato called."

"...departed, Asuka?" since when did she talk like that?

"Shut up! That just.. slipped out. I was studying for the English class's test ok. Agghhh, whatever! Disappeared, I meant to say disappeared that day Misato called."

"You didn't tell her did you?" I voiced, my manner all serious all of a sudden, throwing her off a bit.

"Umm, no... I didn't know what to say about it so Hikari and I decided to kept it to ourselves."

"Good. In this case the less you know the..."

"NO! You are going to tell me Ikari, so you can keep that load of crap to yourself. Now spill it!"

I took a moment to think it through as I put all of the pieces together. The Matrix was dangerous, that was a fact. And knowing about it was too, but not knowing could be worse. I knew that the Agents would eventually come for me and probably before I ever got back in contact with the people from Zion again, so the odds of me ever being able to protect Misato and Asuka .. and the class rep too, from them was slim to none.

'But maybe if she knew she could... No, it wouldn't matter, the outcome would be the same.'

But as I noticed the look in the red head's eyes I knew that I wouldn't be able to refuse her because I could see the same desperate, haunted look that I had had before when I was trying to figure it all out on my own.

Asuka didn't have even near enough of the angst in her eyes that I had gained in the weeks before I had meet Miss Ibuki on that street corner, but it was the same and I couldn't let her go the same route that I had.

'Damnit I'm weak!'

"Fine Asuka, fine Asuka, but not now." I gave in with my head down, praying to an angry god that I wasn't making a huge mistake.

"It had better be now, Third or I'll..."

"You don't get it, if we don't hurry we'll be late for school."

"Oh..." and with a quick check of her watch the German girl grabbed my hand and nearly dragged me all the way there.

/WRW/

We spotted Hikari in the halls who was in the process of making her way to class. I say in the process because of the absently slow pace she was taking, which was not like her at all. Asuka even had called out to her, but Hikari didn't respond.

We were fast catching up to her... ok, Asuka was catching up, I, like I said before, was being dragged.

Even when we had reached her side the girl still didn't respond. I could see the distracted look in her gaze as she moved on auto, her blank gaze signaling that her inner mind was in full control. There were a few rings under her eyes from lack of sleep and I barely suppressed a sigh out of knowing the cause.

The Matrix did a fine job of toying with the mind. But we were only middle school kids, this shouldn't have been how it was for us. But of course the Angel war itself shouldn't have been how it was for us either.

"Oh look its Toji with that tramp Keiko." The red head said at my said in a overly excited voice causing me to turn and look for my jock friend.

"No, he's not... mmggh mmgh." the hand clamped over my mouth did a fine job of stifling my protest and my air supple as well.

"What! Where? I'll smack the sense out of that whore if she even thinks of... huh?" The pig tailed girl said with such a vehemence I could almost taste the venom dripping from her lips. But don't get the wrong idea, alright. It's not like I dream -I mean think, yes think, that's a better word, think about the taste of Hikari Horaki lips or anything. It's just a figure of speech, you know. Hehe ... um... cough.

"Sorry to destroy your berserker daydreams Horaki, but lets focus a little more on the Real World, ok?" Asuka was saying to the still confused Class Rep.

"That's not funny Asuka! I wouldn't do that to you and Ikar.. I mean Kaji." The girl switched up at the narrowing of the German's eyes.

"Mmmghh!"

"Huh, oh yeah. Forgot I was still holding you." the evil girl said with a laugh.

"gasp... Damnit Asuka! Are you trying to suffocate me?" It was always something with that girl.

"Naw, you'll have to answer my question before I do that, Third."

"Oh, Ikari, I didn't see you there. Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine Incho."

"Um... ok, well..." Now this was a strange sight. As long as I have known Hikari, I've rarely ever seem her so flustered and hardly over something like this, especially considering some of the nastier things Asuka has done in the past. So what was the ... and then I saw it and remembered the rings. That look, it was the same... the same as Asuka's, the same as mines.

"You want to know too, don't you?" my voice was quiet, my words steady, yet resigned. I already knew what her answer would be.

Her almost desperate "Hai..." confirmed my fears.

We three stood like that for a bit in silence, each thinking of what it would mean to know the truth and a possible end to the haunting doubts and images that plagued our minds.

I didn't want to disappoint them and I didn't want to get them involved, but evidently the choice wasn't mind to make.

"I can't promise anything more than the truth or at least as much of it as I know. Whether it solves your problems is not something I can guarantee. Hell, I'm damn positive it'll only give you more questions and more trouble." I said to the both of them as they stood there calmly, but with hopelessly eager looks in their eyes.

"Just as long as I get some answers, I hate this not knowing." That was from Asuka of course.

"I'm not sure what good it'll do, but it's driving me crazy not knowing as well. I need this Shinji." The freckled girls words seemed to echo my thoughts from before Maya's timely rescue.

"We should get going now."

"You're right Hikari, class is about to start. Alright Third, let's go."

"Hey, wait! That's my arm, damnit! Aghh... quick. dragging meee!"

/WRW/

"Well, look who it is. The great Third Child returns!" was the greeting I got as we came into the classroom.

"Too bad he couldn't have left his side kick at home though." Aida answered back after Toji's initial remark.

"SIDE KICK! DID YOU JUST CALL ME THAT DUMMKOPF'S SIDE KICK!" it was just the start of another day in class 2A as Asuka went into it with the other two Stooges. "I'll show you a side kick, and don't worry, I'll throw in the roundhouse for free. It'll be a bargain."

"Calm yourself miss Sohryu. You can deal with those two later."

"Ahh Sensei!" Toji and Ken cried from the floor but the professor wasn't listening as he continued on.

"It seems we have a surprise for you all. I'd like everyone to meet your new class mate, please state your name for us miss."

"Hello class. My name is Mana, Mana Kirishima and it's a pleasure to meet you."

I really hadn't been paying attention. There hadn't been an Angel attack in sometime, so it wasn't all that unusual for a new student to join the class, but for anyone with that name to show up, well, unusual did a poor job of fitting the bill, but it was all I had.

I was almost afraid to look up, but when I did my fears were all confirmed. The professor was telling the young girl with the pink hair and the huge smile to find a place to sit, but once again I wasn't listening. I was too much in shock.

'Of all of the people to end up in class 2-A.'

"Hello again, Shinji-kun." The voice of my distress said as she took a seat to the left of me.

"Um hello, miss Kirishima was it?"

"Yes, I must say you are looking better than last time we met." I wanted to roll my eyes. Of course I looked better. Last time I had been wet, bruised, dirtied and not to mention exhausted.

"Yeah... well, so do you." Last time she had been a real bitch, but it seemed she was in Kawaii mode today. Weird girl.

Of course this perked everyone's interest after hearing our little conversation. The Rumor Mill was going to have a blast with this one judging from the fierce whispers going around. And with the speed at which Kensuke was trying to shove film into his camera and that excited gleam in Toji's eye, I knew that the Mill's top reporters were on the case.

"Class will you be seated, it's time for today's lesson."

There was a collective groan throughout the class that only a select few refrained from joining. Asuka and Rei were at the head of that list as each gave me and the new girl strange looks. I was more than surprised to see Rei actually looking at something other than outside and with that look on her face. I couldn't really describe it then, but the word jealously briefly flashed through my head.

'Like that's even possible.'

Whatever the look meant, it didn't last long and as for Asuka... I didn't know what was going on there, so I just let it be. That there was going to be more than one interrogation coming from her later that day was obvious though.

...sigh.

Just another 'normal' day in class 2-A.

/WRW/

It was lunch time and all of the other kids had already left to find a place to eat. I knew Ken and Toji would be on the roof waiting for me and Asuka was probably waiting to drag me into a hallway to find out about the Matrix, and Rei... Rei was gone to ...where ever Rei goes for lunch.

So that left me alone... if standing in a room with a young, pretty, pink haired girl staring me hard in the eyes could be considered alone.

"I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you're not just here for the excellent education, now are you?" my sarcastic question filled the silence and distracted me from my nervousness.

"Of course not, I know all that I need to know." she said with a shrug.

"Sure... so you're supposed to be my what, watch dog?"

"Something like that. We can't just leave you out here on your own, now can we?" that smile of her's was back again and in the dim light of the empty class room it seemed to have a hungry gleam to it.

"Humpf, whatever." I knew it. Father was keeping an eye on me and now so were the resistance and the Agents . It made sense I guess. I was what could tip the balance in either of their favors.

It slightly made me wonder if the Angels had someone on the job as well. That'd be something now wouldn't it?

"Did you take the red pill?" the new girl asked suddenly, catching me off guard, forcing my mind back to that night before.

"Um.. no. Why should I?"

"Didn't Ibuki explain it to you?" I shook my head. We didn't actually have a lot of time back then.

"Well, it works as a sort of blocking program." She must have seen the confused look on my face. "Let's just say that it keeps you off of the Agent's radar and the harder you will it it'll temporary keep you out of their sights."

"You mean I'll be invisible?"

"No! That's impossible."

Whatever... this girl was still talking about impossible when the world was made up of some super advanced computer code. If anything, I'd say anything was possible in the Matrix, but like I said, whatever. Kinda made me wish I had took that stupid thing when I first had the chance.

"About Ibuki-san, how is she?" I was still worried about her. Things had gotten pretty hairy back at the safe house and she really hadn't been in the best of shapes when I got there, so...

"She's fine. She wants you to meet her again in two days. We haven't set up a time and place yet, but I'll give it to you when we do. Now if you'll excuse me, the new girl is going out for lunch." She said with one of those super kawaii smiles I was talking about earlier. I was going to have to watch out for Ms. Kirishima. Her types were always trouble.

And with that she left me to my lonesome to ponder my fate. Once again thing's were starting to look up. Of course there was still a lot that didn't make sense, but my world was heading in a better direction for once. I didn't know how I was going to meet up with Maya with Misato mad at me the way she was, but... I'd do what I had to do.

"You done day-dreaming?"

"Huh? Oh... uh... Asuka, Hikari?"

"What was all that about 'Agents' and Red pills, you doing drugs or something?"

"What? No!" the pure outrage on my face was almost comical.

"That's a relief. You had me worried there for a minute Shinji." the Class Rep gave a sigh while her friend said nothing, her attention never wavering.

and she had that look again, I knew that look very well. Very well.

'Sigh... preparing for Asuka's patented 'I'm going to get what I want if I have to dissect you, twist it, pull it and yank it out of your useless body like a rag doll' look. Round 436 Commencing.'

'Lets try to make it through this one with minimum injury this time, eh Ikari?'

"So..." her majesty Queen Sohryu commenced the first bout of verbal questioning with an eloquent start while leaving the competition breathless.

"Um... so what?"

"It's later, and I believe you owe me an explanation."

"Oh... that."

"So come on, tell me what happened."

"Please do, Shinji." Hikari added a bit more politely.

I sighed... "Where do I begin..."

"The beginning is the must likely place Ikari-kun." ...that voice. Oh shit!

"You! What do you want Wondergirl?" With the appearance of her arch nemesis Asuka's voice took on its usual imposing edge and annoyance at the interruption.

"The same as you, it appears, Second."

"Please don't start a fight you two. We all want to know what happened, so can we just get through this and listen to what Shinji has to say?"

"Humpft. Fine, just as long as Blue over here keeps here dumb questions to herself." Asuka gave a toss of her hair as she turned her nose up.

"I'll ask the same of you." Rei had to have known that statement was going to cause problems. But from her disinterested look I doubted that she cared.

"Hey! You keep your mouth sh..."

"Enough! We don't have all day you know!"

"Ms. Horaki is correct. Please continue Ikari-kun." This left Asuka mumbling in the background, but at least everything was calmer now.

As if...

I was surprised that Rei was there. Should have guessed that she would be waiting as well from the look she gave me earlier. The blue haired girl was if anything, and usually at the wrong times, curious about the strange wonders of life and society. I guess she had a right to know as well.

Asuka may have been angry, but her eyes held a desperate eagerness for knowledge. Once again I couldn't help but think of how I had been in the beginning and I was starting to wonder just how long had Asuka been feeling the same. But the red head had had enough of my zoning out and so I told her my story so she would stop shaking me like some rag doll of hers.

And if I remember correctly, Asuka didn't like dolls.

It was different this time than with Maya. That had been like letting go of a heavy burden, this felt like I was exchanging it for another, possibly heavier one. All the while the girls just stood there quiet like, Asuka with her eyes focused on the far wall while I explained what really happened that day at the apartment and why I had ran out looking for Miss Ibuki.

Of course I had to back up a bit to explain all of that too, so really I ended up going back to the 12th and Rei's cup, who raised a seemingly perfectly manicured blue eyebrow at that and the others just looked shocked.

Presently...

"And you expect me to believe you beat up three guys twice your size like some pro Martial Artist out for some fun. Whatever, Ikari. So, what happened after you fought those Agent guys?"

"Uh... well. It kinda got weird after that..."

"Only after that... " Hikari throw in sarcastically while Asuka finished with... "Please, I'd say it got weird the moment you fell in that Angel."

"I must agree with pilot Sohryu. The 12 was obviously the initiator of these new phenomenon."

"Of course you agree with. I am a genius you know. The 12th Started it all."

"We know that Asuka, you don't have to keep repeating it."

"Indeed. That was clearly unnecessary."

"Shut up you."

I was quiet for a bit, blocking out the girls chattered in the background, as I remembered the distinct feeling of dying, of slowly losing my life to an enemy that I couldn't fight and with no hope of any out side help.

Hikari and Rei must have sensed my mindset because they both looked abashed for a few brief second there, which was a sight to remember, especially Rei, while Asuka tried to hurry up and change the subject.

"So... uh.. what... happened. Yeah! What happened Third Child?" She tried to get back into her bossy mode, using her 'supposed' anger to cover up her embarrassment. I didn't say anything about it and just went on with my story with a slight smirk.

"Like I said, it got weirder and then..."

/WRW/ three nights prior

I was lost.

And hopelessly so.

The sheer volume of twist and turns we had made had left me with a dizzying headache and absolutely no clue where we were, or where we were going. The pouring rain had not helped either, further impairing my senses.

The sky rumbled its annoyance, roaring its call of challenge to the arrogance of the ground below in believing itself safe from the wrath of the heavens above. Lightning forked in numerous directions as the winged soldiers of the clouds began their assault on the unprotect fortresses of the earth.

Their scouts, the Rain, had already reported back that even steel and stone were no match for the heaven's might. And so once again the roaring of the thunder crashed in the background, sounding its horn in time to the steady fall of the rain's battle drums.

Through it all my female accomplice lead me by hand through the misty shadows of the city's back ways as we moved in and out of alleys and down deserted streets with broken street lamps, leaving only the hazy and not so reliable moonlight as a guide when it felt that it was safe to peek through angry clouds above to catch a glimpse of the battle waging below. Its infrequent appearances were the only help we got while we traveled through the seemingly haphazard path.

For most of the trip her limp hadn't been as noticeable as I would have thought for any regular girl in her position. I probably would have forgotten about it if she hadn't begun to breathe harder with each step she took, her body unconsciously spending more time to rest for that foot than she would have normally.

Even then she said nothing, neither complaining nor asking for help. And the stern expression she would give me when she caught me trying to check out the extent of her injuries made me keep my inquires to myself, but with every step my worries grew even if hidden.

In the end, time, blood loss, shock and wariness added up until the girl practically fell into my arms. Now, I'm not the strongest person in the world, so it was a bit of a struggle keeping her off the ground, but I managed somehow.

Luckily, she didn't really weigh all that much so it wasn't that much of a problem.

Why do some people only look relaxed when they're asleep? The unnamed girl in my arms who, not minutes before, held a look of such resolve and purpose... and strain, could then lay here with her dark black shortly cut shoulder length hair matted against her pale wet skin and seem completely peaceful, the tranquility of her slumber emphasized by the slow rise and fall of her chest.

"She's American?" I guess with all that had been going on I didn't take notice until now, but indeed she was American. It wasn't uncommon to find foreigners in Tokyo three, but I wondered if this whole Matrix thing had anything to do with it.

It didn't matter in the end because I was too lost in watching her rest. Her slight frame fit easy in my hands now for some reason. The dark and hopelessly wet clothes she wore only served to highlight the beauty of her peaceful form.

... I had to catch myself for a moment there. I didn't even know this girl and I was well on my way to falling for her. But with the Angels, Agents, Asuka and Father, I had enough problems to deal with to even consider matters of the heart.

(I didn't actually say that part out load, though. I'm not that dumb.)

Fortunately for me, or maybe not, my possibly romantic musings were cut short after a while when she recovered a bit, enough to rise on her own, but with a steady hand to help hold her, and we went on from there together with me helping to keep her up while she guided with her soft yet determined voice giving me directions.

I barely caught the slightly embarrassed look she had when she found herself in my arms. The small blush on her cheeks reminded me of another quiet, pale skinned, shy young woman. But the moment wasn't to last and soon the red tint in her cheeks was replaced by her earlier determined one.

I sighed at the loss.

Eventually we made it to 'some' warehouse or another, a safe house of some sort. I couldn't really tell if this was the place but the girl had knocked on a door that I hadn't even notice was there at first. There had been a pass code, but I didn't hear it, the surprise that we had made it took precedence.

Her limp had gotten better by then and she no longer needed my hand or my help. Frankly I just think that she didn't want her people looking down on her because of her injury.

In any case, soon we were inside and passing by a number of rooms filled with people, weapons, and desperation. You could feel it in the air, almost smell it. But it also held a sense of purpose. In any case the not so pleasant militant environment combined with my numerous brushes with death and the biting cold of my soaked clothes only made me more nervous than usual, so I could have just been jumpy.

At that time I still didn't know the girl leading me's name and the atmosphere didn't seem to encourage speaking so I kept my questions to myself once again.

I didn't have to wait long before I was led into a sort of meeting room with a number of people already waiting within. I'm sure the others were all interesting people considering their dress and from what I could guess of their attitudes when I stepped in, but I was only interested in one of them.

"Maya-san!" I cried out the moment I saw her.

"Shinji-kun! I'm so glad you're alright. I had hoped the Agents didn't get to you." the image of bubbling beauty with her hands over her mouth trying to hide her relief and the huge smile on her face before me settled the unfocused ache in my chest that had formed there unknowingly the moment I had called her house and didn't receive an answer.

But it was alright now, Maya was alright.

"No, they didn't.. well...ok, that's not exactly true, but it doesn't matter. When I made it to your apartment I almost thought that... that..."

"It's alright Shinji. I'm fine." And indeed she looked fine, her wide smile helped reassure me, but I noticed that she had a few patches of bandages soaked in blood on her arm and that she walked with a slight limp as well.

"Ibuki-san?"

"Oh, it's nothing, just a few scratches." The older woman said through gritted teeth, the lie easily pointed out.

"I'm afraid we'll have to cut your reunion short, Vision."

"Vision?" I asked a bit confused. Maya just gave me one of those 'I'll explain later' looks.

It was then that I took the time out to really notice my surroundings and the voice that had interrupted us. The room was old and stark, like a type of dilapidated greeting room from a few decades before 2nd Impact. Besides the numerous computer equipment nearby and the strange brown leather arm chair, which seemed to be the only few items from our time period, the rest of the place looked as if it could have been taken from some post modern apocalyptic punk flick that seemed to be popular back in Misato's day. It all had the look of a place where anything and everything could be taken down at any moment.

Luxury was surely a pricey commodity, but the people around me didn't seem too bothered by it. They had that same feel to them... as if they could be out of this place in any number of ways in the amount of time it would take for us to reach the surface in one of our EVA's during an Angel attack.

The leader of the group appeared to be an American woman by the looks of her. Her slim figure, slick back dark pony tailed hair and all black skin tight leather tights and trench coat fit well with the no nonsense attitude she seemed to exhibit. (There's a comma somewhere in that sentence, I swear though, seriously.) The high collar of her coat gave her a sort of majestic feel about her, as if she were the Queen of this here hive and all within knew it without a doubt.

Strangely... she reminded me of father.

The lady in question began after she had gestured for us to sit in one of the surrounding chairs gathered around her strange brown one. There was something about that chair that I couldn't place. It just seemed... familiar to me for some reason, but I wasn't sure if it was in a good way.

"So, you're the one." The leader said. Some of the others in the room snickered a bit while some held slight smiles. The leader held neither. Her mouth was tight and the dark sunglasses she wore didn't help the picture, but I got the impression that the word choice didn't exhibit the best of memories.

"Vision here tells me that you're an EVA pilot. I find that hard to believe, but the truth usually is. You most likely have questions?" I nodded. I wanted to say more, but my mind was in a haze. There was something about this woman... something... familiar as well.

"Tell me, what do you know about the Matrix?"

I took a quick glance at Maya, and she gave me another reassuring smile so I continued on.

"The Matrix is ... a powerful force that binds us to this world and the rules... that we have believed to... limit us." I ended hesitantly. The Others around nodded approvingly and I suddenly felt like I was in the middle of an oral exam trying to explain the effects of 2nd Impact on real world economy.

"It holds the same qualities of a computer program, but far more powerful and advanced, able to span the whole... world?" I guessed at the end.

"Correct Mr. Ikari. You are quite correct. I believe you have seen the truth of this for yourself?"

I just nodded. Oh, I had seen it alright.

"Then let me fill in some of the blanks for you. First of my name is..."

"Trinity!" I yelled out and suddenly felt foolish for it. The others looked surprised and a bit alarmed. I thought that I had done something wrong but the lady just continued on as if nothing was afoot.

"Yes, my name is Trinity. And could you tell me how you know that?" She inquired, her stern face seeming to stare into my soul.

"I... don't... you just seem... I know you. I .. know you. I keep having these dreams and sometimes they aren't dreams, but you're in them and there are other people but mainly just you and... you and him." I finished off quietly.

"Him?" One of the others to my left asked. His light brown leather jacket in stark contrast to the others in their apparently uniform black.

"Oh, the name's Cascade" his Korean accent barely audible.

"Cascade?" I asked, they had called Maya by a weird name too.

"Yeah, you know, like a waterfall. My enemies fall all around me." he looked up over at one of the other ladies in the group and winked. "The lady's too." His smirk was just like Kaji's, wayyy too assured.

"Yeah, from your breath." The lady in question joked and the others laughed as well.

"But really, who's 'him'?" Cascade asked seriously, even though he still had that smile on.

"I... don't really know his name, but... I know what he looks like. I think... I think some one once called him... what was it 'Mr. Anderson' or something. I really wasn't paying much attention to that."

It was then that I noticed the dead silence in the room. Even Maya was quiet and everyone was looking at Miss Trinity. Strangely... she was the only one smiling.

"That Mr. Ikari was Neo." she said the name with endearment, so I figured that they had been close before. What I could remember of those hazy images seemed to agree.

"The man you saw was known as The One. He was one of us and fought against the Agents. Hell, he was the only one who really could."

"Are you sure, cause I'm pretty sure I made certain that they wouldn't be getting up when we fought earlier?" Now I had thought that they had been surprise before, but now, hell they were well and truly stunned. All except the girl from before who had led me here.

One of the others in the room was helping her with her arm but she spared time enough to give me another one of those piercing glares of hers, but I didn't get the point. They were 'down for the count' as Touji would say. I wouldn't say that they were dead or anything like that. They didn't seem... weak enough for death. Not after what they had done and the hits they had taken.

Strange, me contemplating the death of someone without worry or aversion. It was just like with the Angels. Their deaths didn't matter. 'But those were men, real men. ... I think?'

"I think you need to explain what happened before we continue." Trinity was saying and then she gave the girl at my side a look that made her bow her head a bit in shame. "It seems that we don't know the whole story."

I sighed again for who knew how many times that day. It seemed to becoming a habit, one that I'm not too fond of. In any case all of these questions and the scant amount of answers I was getting in return wasn't putting me in the best of moods. I was tempted to tell them so, but I guess my narrowed eyes gave me away and Miss Trinity set in before I could.

"I understand that you feel stressed, Mr, Ikari and that your life has turned upside down..."

"You have no idea." I interrupted.

"but I'm asking you to trust us. There's a lot going on it and we are rather used to people knowing what this is all about, but you are new here. So, I'll ask that you tell us what happened tonight and then we'll give you a place to change out of those wet clothes. We'll try to explain the situation to you tomorrow. I understand that you have had a rough night."

I guess I gave my acknowledgement or something, I'm not sure. Everything seemed to run together around then. I remember telling them about the Agents chasing me on the street to meeting Miss Ibuki and what happened at the apartment. I left out that Asuka and Hikari were there. I didn't think they needed to know that and I really didn't want to get them involved.

I told them about the phone call and Maya's number being disconnected in the middle. Then my trip over there, without the little scene with the puddle and then all the way to the fighting to here.

They had been quiet throughout the whole session leaving me with only their expressions to go by. Many of had winced a couple of times during the fighting and a few smiled at the part where I pushed the girl out the window head first, she, on the other hand, smacked me in the arm, claiming it was pay back.

Maya just had this sad expression on her face the whole time. She looked as if she blamed herself for what happened, but I didn't hold it against her. How could she have known?

All Trinity said was a simple "I see." and then asked Devine, the girl at my side, if she would show me to a room. I could hear the others talking quietly about what I had said as we left but it was Devine who held my attention.

It was around then as she led me to some hole in the wall room that I noticed the resemblance. Her soft brown eyes, though they contrasted with her stern face, was what first tipped me off. I knew those eyes, the images running in and out of my head were a testament to that, but it was her face that sealed the deal.

During all of the running and fighting I had never really gotten a chance to really get a good look at her, but it was obvious now that we were so close.

"You're Miss Trinity's daughter aren't you? You're Neo's daughter?" She gave me a side long glace but that was it, making me feel foolish for my outburst.

Obviously she wasn't the talkative type or that just wasn't the best subject. Either way we eventually ended up at a community shower that was surprisingly in good shape compared to the rest of the place.

"You can take a hot shower here. There will be some clothes left out for you when you're done." And with that she was gone. Heading towards a the company of a girl that I could have sworn had pinkish, brownish hair, but I was probably just seeing things.

There was nothing to it but to do as she said and I wasn't in mind to catch a cold.


	8. allies

/Welcome to the Real World/

lawless priest -

08: allies

The shower had been refreshing and the clothes helped to warm me up. The gray T-shirt and the black jeans and boots really weren't my style but all of my clothes and my shoes were soaked through, so, there wasn't much that I could do with them.

I think they had me on surveillance or something because there wasn't anybody around when I came out of the shower, but by the time I got down the hall there was somebody there to guide me.

But then again it could have just been the hopelessly lost look I had on.

Yeah, it was probably that.

"Hey, you hungry?" My guide asked me. He was a younger Asian guy, a little older than me who said his name was Slipstream, which I thought was a little weird and I had to ask him why. Apparently it was his handle and that he had been a hacker before joining Zion.

"Zion? What's Zion?" dumb question right?

"We're Zion." a quiet voice said from behind us.

"Oh, Devine. I didn't know you were there. It kinda freaks me out when you do that, you know." Slipstream said with a sheepish look as he made room for her inbetween the two of us as we walked.

"That's probably why she does it, Slip." Another Asian girl around my and Devine's age said joining our little group as we entered the mess hall. It was her, the girl from before. I guess I hadn't being seeing things, but I had never seen a girl with pink hair before, but Misato had purple and Rei had blue so I just let it be.

"Whatever Mana. Besides, I would have known if it was you, you'd have been yaking none stop the whole time without taking time to breathe."

"Shut up Slip." The girl Mana called back as they began to get into it while Devine and I kept to ourselves. I didn't want to get involved, besides, answers were what was on my mind.

"So, who are you?" Apparently the two had finished their little spat and the misses was looking for some new form of entertainment, aka 'the new guy'. And with the way she had her hands on her hips as she looked expectedly with her pink close cut hair swaying as she turned her questioning eyes at me reminded me instantly of Asuka, but she just didn't have the German EVA pilot's feel to her, so the resemblance ended there.

"Uh, I'm Shinji, Shinji Ikari." I said with a bow.

"No need for that, just call me Mana. So what's with the name, you new here or something?"

"Uh..." I thought it was obvious.

"Yes, he is." Devine stepped in as we made our way to the line.

"Is he the one, the one you brought back, D?" The pink haired girl questioned as she grabbed a hot bowl of Miso soup from the counter.

Devine only nodded, but the other two seemed used to this type of behavior form the girl.

"So, is he any good?"

"What do you mean?" I was just as confused as her.

"You know, is he any good in bed?"

Slip laughed out right at the face Devine made while my own face heated up as one of the ladies serving the Miso Soup in my bowl gave me a wink and a chuckle.

I could easily tell that Devine was ready to commit murder and the smug look on Mana's face guaranteed she'd be the first victim. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to change the subject, and quick too.

"Um.. Devine, was it?" I stammered along. "Why were you so mad back there with the Agents?"

Once again the room got quiet at the mention of their names. I was starting to see a trend there. Even the Mana girl was silent. Devine didn't say anything until we were seated in the far corner.

"You obviously do not know anything about the Matrix." She replied as we sat down.

"Well, obviously. And ever chance I get to ask a question you people either cut me off and ask me 10 more or get all closed mouth when I ask one."

"It's because of the questions you ask."

"Well they're the ones that matter most to me."

"They're the ones that can't be dealt with. No one who has fought an Agent has lived, no one. They are the bane of our existence and our greatest enemy. Besides, you heard what they said, they were trying to capture you not kill you. If they were, you'd have been in pieces long before you'd ever even gotten a hit in."

"You're saying that they're faster than they were?"

"Much faster. Only... only father could fight the Angels alone and win."

I caught the slight hesitation there in her speech. Tokyo 3 just didn't seem to be a place where fathers were at their best it seemed.

"I see. So, um... you said earlier that you guys... I mean this was Zion. What do you people do?"

"What do we do?" Mana cut in with an exasperated look. "We fight the Machines, we take on the Agents and free people from the lie that is the 'real world'."

"Machines...? What machines and how can you beat the Agents if you can't fight them." what was all that supposed to mean, machines?

"The Machines are what we call the enemy. They're hybrids." Mana must have caught my confused look.

"You really don't know anything do you? Well, whatever, the Matrix works almost as a master computer program that governs the rules that hold this world together. The more control one has over the system, the more one can do in this world."

"I see, so these Agents have more control than we do?"

"No, but their masters do. The Agents are people who work for them and have had their code altered to fit some design for them. But when they do this their code ends up becoming more like a machine's that a person, like cyborgs or androids or something like that.

"It's kinda hard to explain, but it's just that the code that computers and engines and other 'machines' have is different than the normal human code. Machine code can be programmed easier and rewritten to fit whatever design you want it to take because its stoic, unchanging, confined and conformed. Human code is too chaotic, too free, that's why the Machines turned themselves into human/machine hybrids so that they can have a better hold over the matrix." The pink haired girl said all of this with a know it all expression as if she was explaining to a toddler.

"The Agents are their gate keepers, their master's guard dogs. They are there to keep them in power and make sure everything in the system stays in line."

"And we don't beat the Agents, only their lackeys." Devine continued.

"Yeah, we hit up their bases, taking out their hold on the system." Slip had to throw his two cents in as well it seemed.

I was quiet for a bit after that, just trying to piece it all together as I ate my soup.

"I understand all of that... I think, but what do the Angels have to do with everything?" I thought out load as the memory of Neo's death came to mind. He had faced that white Angel at the end, trying to stop it from waking up, but why?

"Angels? What are you talking about?" Slip and Mana said at once, while Devine just gave me a questioning look.

"Your father, he fought an Angel before he died. I think it was during Second Impact. It had to be, that creature was the First."

It had appeared that we had gained an audience as the other would be freedom fighters listened in with rapt attention, but I didn't care. I was in my own world trying to piece the puzzle together.

"Um... If I remember correctly, there were no angels during 2nd Impact. Big asteroids yes, giant demons from space, no." Slip said with a mouth full of Miso.

"Stream here has a point and how would you know about the Angels or about how Neo died anyway?" came Mana's quick reply.

"Your visions?" Devine supplied. "You have seen my father's death?"

"Yeah..." bowing my head I thought back on that memory, one of the clearest I had gotten of him. "He had gone to Antarctica, to the site of Dr. Katsuragi's research camp. There had been Agents there and they were trying to ... no, that doesn't make any since. Why would they want to wake up the First Angel?"

"You are not making much sense." Neo's daughter said to my right. "And how are you sure it was an Angel?"

"How am I sure? I'm an EVA pilot. Killing Angels is what I do. Besides, Dr. Katsuragi's daughter was there. She saw what started 2nd Impact and was the only survivor from that place. Plus she's my Guardian and my Commanding officer, who is so going to have my ass when I get back home."

"Ah, that is how you know Vision." Trinity's daughter said with a knowing look.

"Was Maya a hacker too or something?" I had to ask. I mean, what was with that name.

"Huh, Maya? Oh Vision, yeah! She's one of the best." Slip throw in, the dreamy look he had on his face when I mentioned Maya was a bit creepy, though.

"I forgot that she works for Nerv." Mana thought out load. "So you're an EVA pilot huh? You sure don't look like much, but why would they make you a pilot anyway, I mean you're just a kid?" There were a few agreeing mutters in the back somewhere.

"Just a kid? Hey, I'm the same age as you and I can't tell you about the Piloting selection system, that's classified!"

"So are we Mr. Ikari. And if you wish to continue living you'll act as if you are as well. But might I ask a related question?" With the way Devine had asked so politely there was no way that I really could refuse her.

"Um... sure, go ahead." Everyone having their eyes on me was making me rather nervous. I had never been one for crowds.

"Are you related to a Gendo Ikari, the Supreme Commander of Nerv?" The quiet dark haired girl asked me in that soft voice of hers that reminded me so much of Ayanami except she didn't have that strange monotone that I was familiar with. But Rei, was the last thing on my mind then and the light scowl growing on my face and the once again narrowing of my eyes must have been an involuntary action because she immediately cut in before I could open my mouth.

"I'm sorry if I upset you, I didn't mean anything by it?"

'Was she trying to apologize.' I thought as I sat there confused.

"No, it's alright, it's just... Yes, he's ... I'm his son." I couldn't say that he was my father, he had never been my father. Maybe when I was young, while mother was still alive, maybe then, but that was the past.

"I see." was her curt reply.

"What's going on here, am I missing something?" Someone called from outside of the ring of people listening to our conversation.

"Maya-san?"

"Ah, Shinji-kun, I was looking all over for you. You seem to have made some friends. Hello miss Kirishima, Devine and how are you SlipStream?"

"I'm fine Miss Vision!" Slip said with a silly grin on his face as the others gave their greetings.

"Shinji, would you like to go for a little walk?"

"Um... sure, Maya-san." I could clearly hear some of the disappointed mutters in the back from what I guessed to be some rather jealous men at Maya's departure and from the blush on her cheeks I knew that she had heard them as well.

We were both silent for some time as the older woman led me around the warehouse, both just taking comfort in the other's presence.

Eventually we ended up at the room that I had been assigned to with me sitting on the sparse bed while she took the only chair in the small room. It really was nothing to look at and just like the rest of the place everything in the room looked like it could be collected and vacated at any moment.

The impermanent nature of the safe house was rather depressing if you thought about it. And I was surely thinking about it 'Would I end up like them? Would my life be nothing more than a fleeting dream, never spending more time in one place long enough to leave an impression.'

I had no doubts that numerous people had lived - no stayed... no one had ever Lived in that room before, no one. But all the same I could feel the desperation of that place closing in on me.

If it wasn't for Maya's comforting presence, I would have bolted from there and probably been caught by the Agents like before or something worse.

/WRW/

"So... what happened then." Asuka was saying with barely contained anticipation.

"Um... you do know that Lunch is almost over right?" I had to ask. If she ended up missing out on lunch because a certain 'Baka had taken too long telling his bloody story' I was going to be the one to pay for it.

"Uh, yeah, that. Hmm..." she paused for second to think while checking to see if anyone had stepped in while we... I mean I was talking. We all seemed to have been lost in the tale.

"You can eat and talk right?"

"Yeah..."

"Well then." The smugness of the look on her face would have made you think she had just won the Olympics or something, but I knew it was just Asuka. The slight smile on Hikari's face lightened the moment while she pulled out her bento as her friend did the same and Rei began eating silently the salad she had packed.

"Fine, now where was I?" I though as I opened my bento, chop sticks held idly in hand.

"You were with Ibuki-san if I remember correctly." Rei was saying.

"And considering the blank look you always have on we're supposed to believe you actually have one?"

"Asuka!"

"What?"

"Um... I think you're right Ayanami. Now let's see... "

/WRW

We sat there in silence for a bit as the nature of the desolate room bore down on our heavy thoughts, but eventually she broke it, her expression a bit sad as she turned to me.

"I'm... sorry Shinji. I ... "

"Sorry, for what M-Maya." It was still a challenge to actually call her by her name sometimes.

"For what? For getting you involved in all of this! I should never have gotten you mixed up in all of my problems."

"But you're wrong, besides this was just as much my problem too ever since I started seeing the code. If anything, you've done more to help me out in this one day than I've been able to do for how ever many weeks it's been since this started."

"I owe you Maya-sempai and I thank you."

She was speechless with her mouth hanging a bit and like everything she seemed to do, she looked cute while doing it. (Asuka snorted at this part while I looked sheepish for forgetting who I was telling the story to.)

"This is not how I envisioned things would go." She started off after a long silence. "I thought that I would be able to teach you about the Matrix and then show you the Construct and have you trained on it so you'd be able to protect yourself just in case you did have a run in with an Agent. But everything seems to have just gone wrong at every turn."

"Construct...? What's that?"

"Huh... oh, the Construct. Hehe." she giggled a bit. I still found it a bit weird to see a grown woman giggling, but I wasn't going to complain, it was just too cute. It reminded me of this one time of this impromptu tickling match me and Asuka had. You should have heard her. No one in school would even think of Asuka in such a position but to actually hear her giggle ... sigh. The word kawaii just didn't do it justice. She somehow made it sexy... but we're not getting into that.

(I was going to stop but the huge blush on Asuka face while I was telling this while Hikari gave her one of those 'you and I have a lot to talk about later' looks kept me going as a bit of pay back for all the times she embarrassed me. I could also tell that Rei, from the slight frown and raising of her brow, that I was again going to have to explain the merits of tickling to her sometime in the near future as well. Hopefully she wouldn't want a demonstration. .. Ok, ok, you got me, I wasn't hoping that much. )

In any case, it's strange how a few words can lift a frown from someone's face and place a smile there in no time at all. I guess it was just her relief at being able do something and keep her mind off of the past. And mostly because she didn't have the chance to explain something really Technical to other people much, her work being super classified with a capital P and all - and no and don't know where the P came from- and her friends at work probably didn't really think it was all that exciting as it was to her, that truly did it.

I was just glad that she wasn't wallowing in her supposed guilt anymore, but it probably would have been smart to actually listen to what she was saying.

All that I caught from that conversation was something about the Magi and training and some lady in a red dress... then again, I could have just been day dreaming. Maya tended to use a lot of big four million dollar words that meant very little to me. But I tried to stay attentive or at least look it.

We spent must of the night that way, just talking about nothing and everything all together. But more importantly, finding comfort in each others presence to keep our minds off of the mysteries of the Real World.


	9. 09: everyone loves a good story

AN:

Um... yeah. Apparently cats have been getting confused of late about certain aspects of the little world I created here, like... 'what the hell is going on?' and so i'll have to clear that... but not now. I can't do that without rewritting the the next chapter over again and not doing that because it took me too damn long to do it in the first place... But worry not, I'll try to set everything strait when I can.

but to clear up one small detail that kinda sticks throughout the whole story that I thought I explain, but not well enough I guess... there is no, how do you say... Real World... you know, like the outside with all of the pods and desolate cities and all that crap? There's no of that. The Matrix is the Real World. That clear everybody? ... good.

anyway... like I said, we'll get into that in more detail next chapter. - mainly because I'll have more room to write then. /AN

/Welcome to the Real World/

lawless priest -

09: everyone loves a good story

The Lunch bell rang, signaling the end of our little get together. I could easily see the disappointed expressions on each of the girls faces.

But it wasn't in my hands.

"Ok, class next time it'll be your turn to share a story." I said with one of those huge fake smiles teachers always use.

The red head smirked and Hikari gave a quick chuckle. Of course Rei said not a thing, but I wasn't expecting her to.

"We'll finish this later at home Third." I nodded, guessing as much. But I saw the other two's looks and had to ask.

"Do... do you two want to come too. I could fix us something while we're there?" The brief frown on Asuka's face when she saw her blue haired pilot 'comrade' nod her assent and the slight quirk of her lips, that many believed to be frozen, didn't go unnoticed by me. I was expecting that as well. Not Rei's version of a smile, that was an added bonus.

"Sure, Shinji. Should we come right over or do you want to..."

"No, that sounds fine. Who knows how long it'll take to explain it all. We might as well get as much time as we can to get it done."

"You forget about Misato? She's pretty pissed at you, you know?"

"Yeah, I know. But luckily she'll be at work late today." That was the first time that I had ever wanted her away until late. Usually I always prayed that she'd show up early to help get me out of Asuka's evil clutches, but all things change..

"Whatever." my roommate replied as she sat at her desk while the other kids began to file back into the room.

"Yo Ikari, where were you man? We were waiting for you on the roof."

"Oh, ...uh, Asuka kinda got mad at me because I forget her lunch today, soo." I lied while scratching the back of my head. It wasn't really hard to fake seeing as I had had far too much active practice in that particular position.

"Oh yeah, Her." Kensuke said while giving the girl in question the evil eye who in turn gave him the finger which started their little match to see who could produce the most obscene hand gestures while still joining in on our conversation.

"It's been weird without you around Shinji." Touji as saying.

"Yeah and every time anyone even mentions your name the Devil over here gets all mad and goes off into mumbling fits. Hey even Hikari's been down that you've been gone man."

I caught the slight frown on Touji's face.

It was obvious he liked her, but I had no clue how she felt about him, but I was pretty sure she didn't feel anything towards me so there was nothing for him to worry about. But love was never simple and rarely made sense. I knew that first hand...

...wait?

Did I just say I knew about love? HA! that's a lie and an outright one at that.

Me and love... in the same sentence?

I wonder if I should even dignify that with another sarcastic HA!

But seriously though, look at the two that I'm always watching. One practically hates me and the other barely even acknowledges my presence.

...sigh

And then there was Devine. What had happened that last day before with Mana and Neo's daughter before everything went to hell kept running through my head.

'Why did she do that, what did she mean...?' The last thing she said to me just didn't make sense. I also felt the incredible urge to touch my cheek where it still felt warm, but I resisted. I didn't want to drudge up those feelings again or bring attention to myself.

"So you going to answer my question or are you just going to stare at the new girl all day?" Touji was saying at my side.

As to that, well, I failed.

"W-What are you talking about?" I stammered. Of course this had the attention of the whole class again, which included the 'New' girl. The smile on her face didn't help either and probably contributed to the blush on my cheeks as my two 'friends' laughed at my expense.

It was just another day in class 2A.

/WRW/

The four of us made an interesting group for any of those who knew us. Three Eva pilots, two who barely spoke to anybody wearing placid looks on their faces and one who's scowl seemed to advertise her bitter grudge and intense personal campaign against society and the rest of the world, and a bubbling Class Representative who tried. and failed, on her own to lighten the dismal mood emanating from the group.

To many, we were just a bunch of kids going home from school, nothing too significant or important by the look of us, accept for maybe the girl with the blue hair and the foreigner. Hair dye wasn't expensive and foreigners weren't unheard of so even that wasn't a big deal. But they didn't know the truth and they probably couldn't handle it either way, so the brief, uncaring looks they gave us didn't really matter much when they turned away as something more interesting caught their eye.

I almost wanted to tell them about the Matrix, scream it in their faces, to shout it out to the world so that they wouldn't go around so blindly and acceptingly believing the lie that was right in front of them. But that would have solved nothing other than to create mass panic and the Angels gave us enough of that as it was.

And besides, that wasn't my style. I'm that guy waiting in the back of the line trying not to cause attention to myself yet hoping to be heard and not forgotten. So any thoughts of actually doing anything like that were purely out of my scope of options.

But whatever. I had caught enough attention in the back of the line than I needed already without jumping up and down while waving my hands and all of Nerv could testify to that. Or at least the one's who cared.

The entire trip was made in silence, even as we waited in the elevator on our way up to our floor. The possibilities of what could happen next was on all of our minds. I could see the excited gleam in Asuka's, the rather worried look in Hikari's and the expecting one in Rei's eyes. They had followed me to gain some answers to their many questions and soon they were going to have to deal with the consequences.

I wished, hopefully, that they would see just how much danger was involved and back away before it was too late, but that was just a fantasy. Asuka would never back down from a challenge, but more importantly, she would never live a lie. Her pride wouldn't allow it. Rei's sense of duty would tie her down, running would not even be considered an option for her.

But Hikari... she was the least experienced here with this type of thing. Strictly speaking none of us were, but we had training and willingly put our lives on the line so that others wouldn't have to. She was one of those people who didn't have to and I didn't want her to get caught up in the mist of this. I didn't want her to be put at that kind of risk.

And from the questioning glances Asuka threw her friend I think she was feeling the same as I. As far as I knew, the freckled girl was the only real friend she had in Tokyo 3. Losing her would not be something Asuka would likely risk. But in the end it really wasn't up to our decision.

It was out of reflex that I took off my shoes and called out that I was home, my mind was elsewhere.

"Um... Misato? Are you here?" There was no answer as I quietly checked her room. Everything was set for out little get together. Now all that was left was...

"So, what do you girls want to eat?" I said as I put on my 'hug the chef' apron only to turn around at the giggles coming form behind me. Asuka didn't care of course, she had seen it before. And Rei merely raised that eyebrow again while giving me a questioning look. So that left only one person unaccounted for.

"I'm sorry but how can you blame me?" her guilty smile and freckles covered by her small hands.

"The rest of him maybe rather dull, but I have to admit that it's... rather becoming on him." I heard Asuka say from somewhere to my right.

"Indeed." came the last one's stoic reply.

"Whatever!" I replied while rolling my eyes. Girls... pahh!

"Anyway, like I was saying, so what would you like, I know you don't like meat Rei so how about a salad?"

"That would be satisfactory."

"Humpt, you'll have to do a lot better than that Ikari. Unlike miss veggie here I'll have something with a bit more substance."

"How about we just make sandwiches, I mean, we didn't come here to eat." Hikari put in.

"Hmm... fine. But you had better make up for this at dinner."

...sigh. Two days gone and I'm back at where I started.

It didn't take long for us to get everything fixed so I won't bore you with the amazing details for our wonderful little expo in the kitchen, but soon we were all in the living room either with a plate or bowl with our food. Of course Pen Pen had to make his appearance known and demanded to be fed as well so... yeah.

"So, before we start do you have any questions. I mean what do you want to know now?"

"How did you fight off the agents Ikari-kun? You haven't spent any amount of time practicing extensive combat training."

"Yeah, I was going to ask that too. Blue and I have yeah maybe, but you're far to weak and hey don't give me that look, it's true. You're just not strong enough for that type of thing." Asuka was saying.

"Was it the Matrix Shinji?" Hikari was leaning forward on her knees with a questioning look.

"... I... maybe... but I don't think so."

"What do you mean?" Asuka seemed about to ask the same thing but Rei beat her too it.

"Well, after Maya left that night after we had talked I met with Miss Trinity in the morning. And we had this long conversation about the Matrix and Neo and a whole lot of other things. One of the things that I figured out was that I, like Neo, like all of The One's before him had some of the memories of our past selves."

"Past selves... you're saying that there were more than one?"

"I believe that was implied Sohryu?"

"You're asking me to hit you aren't you, aren't you?"

"Quit it you two." Hikari gave both of the girls a stern look and then turned back to me. "So.. how does that work? The Neo thing, I mean?"

"Um... there was only one Neo, but The One... that's what they called him and the others, I don't know why, but there was something different about him. He wasn't bound as much to the rules of the Matrix. She, Miss Trinity I mean, she said that he could change things in the Matrix to however he wanted it."

"Supposedly, Neo was the seventh 'One'. I don't know what happened to the other Ones, but I think a part of them lived in the ones that came after them, just like how I know so much about a man I've never met."

"And I think I may have the other's memories as well, but I don't really know. At first I had thought that they were just dreams..." I noticed how Asuka's eyes lit up at that and Hikari's as well. Rei showed no emotion at all as usual. "but I think they're like the dreams I've had of Neo or that they may be something else."

We sat quietly for awhile after that, each of us thinking of the possibilities.

"Before, you said that this Neo, fought against an Angel during Second Impact?"

"Um... yeah what was that about?" Asuka's friend threw in looking perplexed.

I was about to answer Rei's question but Hikari's kinda stopped me in my tracks. She didn't know about the truth behind Second Impact and I debated not telling her but in the end I figured she'd need as much information as she could get to help her make her decision, Nerv be damned.

She took it surprisingly well.

"You mean, everything that we learned in class was a lie?" She asked her question to me but we all knew that it was directed to Asuka who bowed her head. The hurt look in her friends eyes was pretty evident.

"Not everything." The German pilot began. "All that crap about the economy going bad and wars and all that was true, but ... the whole meteor thing... yeah... that was a lie."

"Oh..."

"You should not be concerned about such things miss Horaki." Rei's voice startled everyone. "Knowing how it began does not change that fact that the war has begun."

"... I guess you're right Ayanami. But it still would have been nice to know." Asuka didn't say a thing.

A heavy silence fell over our group, one that I believe even Pen Pen sensed and got up to get away from.

"... um." I began, trying in vain to end the awkward moment.

"You were telling us about your morning visit with miss Trinity."

"Oh, yeah, right!" Silently I thanked my blue haired companion for the help. "Uh.. so yeah... we had talked and then we had been called to..."

/WRW/

".. a meeting?" I said a bit confused.

"Yes Mr. Ikari. Think of it as an... orientation of sorts. You aren't the only new comer to join us today, so we decided to introduce you all together."

"Oh... " what could I say to that. Nothing, so I just followed the darkly dressed foreigner to where ever the assigned meeting place was. All of the halls looked the same, so I knew that if I had to go alone I would have been lost the instant I started out.

We ended up passing through another larger part of the warehouse and this one was extremely busy. People bustled here and there, with all manner of arms and weapons being carried in and out, computer equipment that looked like it belonged in some sci-fi flick or maybe in one of the labs at Nerv being used or created from scratch, while others were busy with whatever other task their were assigned, but they all took time out to greet the woman who walked calmly through the chaos at my side.

I found it a bit funny that even the most burly of men, who's faces seemed to have been carved in granite either soften up, their eyes at least, and asked my guide how she was, gave a respectful nod or a smart salute.

She took it all in stride while giving each a word or a nod as well. Her walk was confident, her presence comforting, if a bit distant, but it was one that requested respect and obedience rather than demanded it like Father's. And unlike Father, she may not have done it often, but she did smile, a quirky, almost sardonic little cynical thing that didn't really reach her eyes.

But it was the thought that counted.

Eventually she lead me out of there and into less traversed area of the place to a group of people ranging from men and women ages 16 to 30 who didn't feel the same as the others. Maybe it was their oblique glances at those who passed them by and many of them looked like I felt. The rings under their eyes and half hidden worry in their gazes were nearly evident in all.

There were 12 in all and everyone turned toward Miss Trinity when we came up to them, the expected looks they gave her made me think of my own questions that I had put to her earlier that morning.

"Good morning people. I know you all must be feeling a bit anxious, but this will soon be over and you will be one of us. Please hold your question until afterwards." the Queen, as I liked to think of her, finished with a nod. She expected for her wishes to be complied and carried out and I had no thoughts of disappointing her.

As the staccato echo of her boots faded away we newcomers introduced ourselves and shared our thoughts, which were mostly questions.

"I really didn't know what was going on at first..." an older brunette, somewhere in her late teens, was telling me as I listened to her tale. It reminded me slightly of Maya's. "but one minute I was watching this goth looking guy running from the cops and the next I was chasing him, only I wasn't myself. My clothes weren't the same, my hands didn't belong to me or my eyes. And all I could think about was catching the goth guy. Nothing else matter, nothing."

"The same thing happened to me." Another guy said to my right and all of those listening to the girl who weren't busy with their own private conversations looked to him. His punk rocker clothes seeming a bit off in the sea of every present black, tasseled business attire of the older few, and the rather plain dress that the rest had. Each of us looking like we had just been roused out of our beds and snuck through the back door of some dark club late at some absurd hour of the night.

"I watched them beat this one guy up. It tried to stop it, but one of these suited guys just tossed me to the side like I was a rag doll. Who ever the guy was must have seen an opening because he got a shot off at the government dudes.

One of them and I swear to you that I saw this with my own eyes, he... the way he moved, I-I mean I can't even describe the speed. He dodged every bullet shot his way, not once but three times for each bullet."

The others gave him spectacle looks, but the girl who I was talking with just nodded. "It was almost like an after image wasn't it." She said and the punk guy nodded.

"Yeah, there were like three of him and they all dodge the shots, but the dude who threw me didn't get the chance to. I guess he was too busy with me that he caught on too late and ended up catching the shots aimed at him." The guys excited expression faded a bit then and his eyes took on a sadden look.

"... but the agent guy... he, he didn't die." this cut through all of the other conversations and gave the boy their full attention. I noticed the brunette beside me wasn't as shocked as the others and I knew that I wasn't either.

Our speaker kept opening his mouth as if he was about to start but then just as suddenly closed it. Eventually he sighed and continued in a quite voice.

"... It was a woman, an old lady actually. I could have sworn that I had gone blind or something, but I didn't. The Agents body gave a shock every time a bullet hit him and then this electric wave passed over the whole guy and when it finished... t-there was an old lady in his place. Bullet holes and all."

It was quiet for some time after that, with everyone trying to take in what they had just heard.

"He used her. Used her body like she was nothing but a doll." The guys voice cut through the silence and startled a few of us, me included. "And then... he used mine."

I knew my mouth was hanging open just like the others. I didn't understand what the girl was saying earlier, but now it made sense. Neo's memories came back to me of Agents taking the bodies of those near by to do their bidding and Maya's tale of her parents becoming Agents only to die in the process as we stood there quietly listening to the punk rocker guy finishing his tale of how the New Agent and his partner ganged up on the other man and dealt with the resistance fighter with a detached ease and efficiency.

Impassive efficiency. "Just like a machine... " I thought out loud.

"Exactly like a machine." Said the soft, familiar, determined voice at my side, once again startling the others, but I was used to this type of thing with Rei, and now with...

"Devine, you said that you don't fight the Agents?" I questioned the quiet girl behind me who had snuck up on us, who only nodded as I turned to her. She was looking rather well for someone who had been beaten and shot the day before, but that was just Devine for you.

The black turtleneck and the khakis fit her well, but they didn't draw unnecessary attention to her, which was something that Devine specialized in ity seemed.

"So how do you beat them? I know it can be done, I've seen it."

My new acquaintances were listening with rapt attention, each wondering what would they do if confronted with the apathetic devils, wondering if there was a small bit of hope that they might have against such a foe.

"I told you before, no one but Neo could..." She started.

"I know that. I'm asking, how did he stop them? What did he do to them that had them so afraid of him?"

"Why don't you tell me? If anyone would know it would be you." the sarcasm in her voice was clear to everyone present.

"But..." I tried to say something but couldn't. She did have a point. If anyone would know it would be me, but that didn't mean that I could just find out all the answers when I wanted to. Things just didn't work out like that. And it wasn't like I could just tell Devine that.

"I'm sorry... Shinji. That was rude of me, but truthfully I-I don't know. I was too young to remember him by the time he died."

"Devine I... I didn't mean to..."

"... Don't worry about it. I'm not exactly sure what he did, but from what I've been able to piece together he did something to their code, disrupted it, blew them apart from the inside out, from the core of their code, not whatever host they were using. That or he just... kinda... beat the crap out of them."

"Oh... I see." well, I guess when in doubt you could always just beat the crap out of the bastards. It worked with the Angels but that was probably not going to help the others seeing how resistant to bullets the Agents were.

The others murmured to themselves quietly, trying to put the pieces to the puzzle together to make the picture whole. I could see the astonished concentration on their faces as they continued to exchange stories and theories on what was going down and why they had come, but I kept to myself. I didn't really need to think about the whole thing any more. The past twenty four hours had cleared me of that urge quite effectively.

But all in all I couldn't helpt but regard Devine, the daughter of the One. There was still something about her that drew me, almost forcing me to notice her. I figured it had something to do with who I held within me and all of the dreams I had been having, but I didn't want to think too hard on that subject either.

For once, I just wanted some inner piece and quiet.

It went like this for some time, the others talking amongst themselves and alternating asking my pale American friend about the Agents and how things went down in Zion. You could say that I heard their words, but I wasn't really listening. There was way too much on my mind. My conversation with Ms Trinity that morning was playing games with my head. There were way too many riddles, way too many questions, ones that could only be answered by the dead.

And we all know how lame the dead are about providing those. The dead can't suffer the living to live in peace, mentally at least.

"Shinji-kun!"

I knew that voice. There was really only three people in Tokyo 3 that I knew of who could get their voices to sound that cute and that girlish yet still sound mature about it. One was my commanding officer, the next was my class rep, and the last...

"Good morning Maya-san."

Turning to give the older woman my greeting I was once again graced with that smile of hers and I wondered briefly if she practiced it in the miror or was its effect inherit. I did notice the attention she gained from the male consortium of newcomers and the slight frowns that a few of the women held, and well, then there were the ones that gave her a once over and an approving nod, but I'm not getting into that. (But really, who was going to disapprove of her.)

"Hello Devine. Are you doing better?" she said while stopping next to me looking better that the day before, dressed in the apparent uniform black in a leather ensemble with a hip length stylish trench coat that like the rest of her dress ware hugged her figure quite nicely. But for my safety's sake we are once again not going there, (especially with the way Asuka was looking at me. Hell even Hikari was giving me annoyed looks. And I am absolutely positive that I imagined Rei rolling her eyes. That just wasn't possible. I but seriously, who's story was this, mine or theirs... sigh.)

"Yes I am Vision. I assume things will be starting soon?"

"Oh, yes. We should be starting everything shortly, I just came to see how everyone was doing and explain a bit about what's going to happen." The number two Nerv Tech said as she turned toward the rest of us, flashing that smile again. Her perky aura was a lone sun flower on a frozen mountain peak compared to the rest of Zion.

Which made me wonder if she every thought about going into the public relations field. I'd bet she would do wonders as a public speaker. But my focus was drifting again and Maya was beginning to explain what was about to go down.

Apparently Trinity was going to give us a bit of an audience in a private chamber to give us a chance to gain some answers and for her to explain what all Zion was about and what the Matrix really was. Then we were going to go with Maya for training which didn't make much sense considering that Miss Ibuki didn't really look like the type to ...well be of any help in that department. And one the guys in the back said so, which earned him a few nods and a few snickers.

But the Nerv Tech only smirked and gave us a wink like a experienced conspirator. That wasn't something that I had ever thought that I would see her do in seriousness. Obviously there was another side to the closest person I knew in Zion that I was unaware of. One that might explain why someone as kind hearted and almost incredibly naive looking as her could end up in a place like this with the people of Zion.

I mean seriously, a Terrorist, Maya Ibuki was not.


	10. the disappointing truth

AN: sorry its so late, but things have been really sucking of late. I'm fives seconds away from finding a bat and smashing it repeatedly into my computer until I'm satisfied that it understands fully just have frustration I am with it.

anyway, this story has been rather slow of late but things will be heating up in the next chapter. And all of my other stories. and yes even Boss Ikari should be getting updated soon. When? Like the hell I know, but soon.

All that aside I just want to say that I appreciate the reviews I've been getting and all or your support. I've been trying to get that out for a while.

/priest/

/Welcome to the Real World/

- lawlesspriest -

10: the disappointing truth

"Alright, alright, I just need to ask this one more time because it's still kinda bothering me." my roommate interrupted before I could continue my tale. She had that look in her eyes again that guaranteed me that trouble was ahead. I really felt like sighing but I kept it in.

"Umm.. sure, what is it Asuka?" No point in stalling.

"The Matrix... what is it, really?"

"Sigh... " guess it couldn't be helped.

"Asuka..." Hikari said again.

"I believe we have been through this before already Sohryu." Even I could hear the bit of exasperation in the First Child's voice and we all know how Rei very rarely shows any type of emotion let alone annoyance.

"Don't give me that crap, this stuff is confusing!"

"Only to the likes of you."

"Oh you've got jokes eh, Wonder Girl? Ha ha, real funny. About as funny as my fist hitting you right between that empty space you call your brai..."

"Asuka, please! We don't have time for that!" Hikari looked about ready to dish out some of that famous Class Rep justice.

"Indeed. Further interruptions will only waste what little time we have left."

"Phah, whatever. It's not my fault that the head dufus over here doesn't know how to explain himself properly."

"Asuka..." Hikari reprimanded again.

"What?" But of course it wasn't like that was going to have any effect on Asuka. She just gave that same innocent expression like she always does.

"Please continue, Ikari-kun." It was Rei who brought me back to the issue at hand, but I couldn't help but gulp a bit.

"Umm... actually, I did sorta... leave a few parts out about the whole... Matrix thing."

Ok, let me ask you this, have you ever been in a room where everyone in it had it in for you? Now make all of them female, with two of them being the pilots of giant 40 story tall bio-mechanical demons who have been training their whole lives to be soldiers.

Now imagine one of those two being one of those cold, emotionless 'the mission is all' types and with the other the most tactful thing you could say about her would be that she's temperamental and lastly you have the more aggressive one's best friend - who has a mean streak on par with her friend - who just happens to be your class rep. Now times that by like 30 and you'll began to understand how it felt to be under all of those cross gazes. Hell, even Pen Pen was giving me the evil eye.

'Traitorous penguin. As if he forgot who feeds him.'

"Ikari..." Rei started off.

"Y-yes."

"We do have other places to be Shinji..." Hikari continued calmly even though the glare she was aiming my way told be that was a lie.

"And it would be in your best interest if you'd stop wasting our time and tell us THE WHOL.E #$$# STORY THE FIRST TIME AROUND!" The German finished for the other two inches in front of my face.

It was deafly quiet in the apartment for a moment, one in which Asuka took to calm down, which I was very much grateful for. She bade me to continued, her fist raised and ready if any extra persuasion was necessary, but I hurried and went about it after I could hear again without my head ringing.

"Well... uh..."

"Ikari..." Rei started again.

"Sorry, sorry... uh... Miss Trinity said that... um..." I paused for a bit. 'how am I supposed to explain this part.'

The girls called my name but I wasn't paying attention. The Matrix really could get your head spinning and it took just about all of that morning for the slight American woman to explain it to me in a way that didn't leave me with a boat load of questions. Which really meant that rather than the aircraft carrier it had started off with I ended up with only a freight boat's worth. I don't know if you've ever seen a freight boat before, they aren't real large, but in this case they're still large enough for it to matter.

But all of that was besides the point. And besides, I had long since given up any true hope of understanding what most of it meant anyway so... that probably helped a bit.

"I swear to you Shinji Ikari if you don't start within the next..."

"They called it a prison." I interrupted. My mind was focused inward, piecing together what I had been told and I what I felt was true from within.

"You've told us this part already." That was Asuka of course.

"They?" Hikari questioned while giving her friend another cross look. I silently wondered if girls practiced those or if it just came naturally.

"They resistance... Zion. Zion was a city, the only human city left. They had believed early on that the Matrix was a huge and supremely superior virtual reality simulation network based on the 21st century. They believed that the Matrix was a cage used to hold humanity hostage, keeping them in check and in a way they were right, but there was more to it."

"The first.. the first man to every become free was the one they eventually called the One. He was... different, he could see things, knew things about the world around him that went beyond what should have been possible. And he knew that things just weren't right."

"He saw the Matrix's code for what it was, believing that he was living in a dream world, one made like a computer program, like a game and he fought to free himself of it and return back home, back to the Real World and yes Asuka I know I said all this before."

"So why are you repeating yourself?"

"You did ask to know what the Matrix truly was, indicating that you didn't understand the first time around Second."

"Don't make me hit you First."

"Be quiet you two. Shinji, I'm confused again. You mean that this isn't real, that it's all just a lie?" Hikari said in disbelief, looking around at the walls and the rest of the room, probably wondering how she couldn't tell the difference.

"Ha! See, it didn't make sense the first time around anyway Wonder Girl!"

I just had to ignore Asuka as I tried to clarify what I meant to Hikari.

"No and yes. It is a lie, but he was wrong as well. There is no Real World, or to be more precise, this is the Real World. The Matrix is the Real World. I said before that the Matrix can somehow control the rules that make up and bind our reality and back then the ones who sat behind the switch board had more power over everything than they do now. But something happened, I don't know what. I know it had something to do with Neo, but that's all."

"You also said that this theory they had of this reality was what they 'had' believed, meaning that they do not believe so now?"

"Uh.. yes, Rei. The enemy played them all for fools."

"I see." was my quiet companion's only reply.

"But what about the first One, how could he get it so wrong? You'd think he would have figured it out. I mean he was supposed to be special right?" my roommate questioned. She didn't even look up at me, her gaze was driven inward as well, lost in her dreams no doubt.

"He was, but they tricked him, they tricked everyone."

"How so Ikair-kun?"

"Um... ok.. think about it like this. The world is like a really realistic computer game. There are levels and levels of code that make up the whole thing that give it details like.. hehe, gravity... and um.. so on. Ok now picture this from the people who were in control's view. For a while everything is cool, nobody knows what's going on and all is right with the world, but then along comes this guy who knows that the world isn't what it's cracked up to be."

"So of course he's going to tell somebody and then they'll tell somebody and so on and so on until the whole world finds out that things aren't what they should be. So they make the Agents to try and capture this guy, but he already spreads the word and the damage is done. Now they have all of these people who don't really know what the Matrix really is or what they could do if they knew the truth, but they do know that something isn't right. So what do

they do...?"

The girls just looked at me with stupid looks. Apparently they weren't in a guessing mood. So instead of waiting for the awkward silence, I continued.

"Most games have levels... you finish one and you move on to the next. The Matrix is like that, but really you can't move on to the next one, because that would defeat the point. People would know something was wrong if they walked through a door and ended up on Mars or something, right?"

"True, but if there were already people who knew the truth or at least some part of it, it would not matter what form the world around them took." Rei pointed out.

"Exactly, and because of the first One, they all thought that the world that they were in wasn't the Real World, but none of them knew how to get Out, but like I said there was no Out. The people who ran things knew that the One would eventually figure this out so they... made one."

"This is confusing."

"I never said it wasn't Asuka." I called back, my voice heavy with sarcasm.

"Calm your nerves Ikari. I don't know what makes you think you can take that kind of tone."

"Oh, but you can take that tone with..."

"Can we please continue." Hikari cut in before we could really get into it.

"Fine!" The red head said with a huff.

"Fine..." I took a quick breath, I had forgotten what it was like to have to deal with Asuka on a day to day basis. It was no wonder Touji and the others said we acted like a married couple.

"You were saying Shinji?" Hikari's question brought me out of my thoughts and put me back on track.

"Oh, uh yeah... they uh... made another level to the Matrix, one that was separate from everything, but still under their control and they let the One find it and gave him bits and pieces of false history to make him think that he was on the right track. So of course he went and told this 'truth' to the others and they eventually made their way to the 'Real World'"

I paused as I tried to find someway to continue my thought pattern. I myself had never seen the 'Real World' my self but I had dreamed of it and it was not something that you could just put into words. Like the sage Morpheus said, 'You have to see it for yourself.'

"And what happened then? Come on Ikari, what did they find, what was it like?" the red head was obviously impatient to hear the truth and I could see that the others were just as anxious.

"It was like Hell..."

The room was silent again. I was getting used to those, which was probably not a good thing. The silences seemed to follow me wherever I went. From the anxious stillness of Zion, the awkward and embarrassing quiet of home to the depressing disquiet of Nerv.

And each one had a stiff hold an me. I took a bit of time then in the pause to reflect on the places that the mysteries of my life revolved around. Even the dress code of each place belied their natures; the plug suit and its constricting form, binding me to father and Eva, my drab- in Asuka's eyes - school uniform, the only real clothes I have calling me out to be the sorry baka that I am, and of course the black boots, gray sweater and the trench coat that I gained from Zion that pointed out just how far gone things had come since the 12th Angels attack.

"I still don't know why they gave me a trench coat though? I mean what am I going to do it?"

"Wear it you dufus. What did you expect?"

Sometimes it can be the dumbest conversations that can save your life. but I'll get to that later.

"That's not what I meant. I mean the whole skin tight leather suit that Maya-san had worn was like their uniform. And technically I'm not even a part of their group. Our little orientation kinda got interrupted."

"Most likely they will not see it that way, Ikari-kun."

"Yeah, it's the principle. You'd think even a stooge like you would get that much."

"Hey!"

"Asuka..."

"What? Oh come on, he had that one coming!"

"I did not, I was merely... !"

Pop, Fizzz, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp.

I paused halfway into my rant, trying to focus on that sound, that oh so familiar sound. Hmm... the popping of a cap, the fizzle of a carbonated beverage, the gulping of a mouth thirsty for the liquid substances therein. Hmm... now why did that sound bring such a horror to mind.

I noticed Asuka's face and the stunned yet bewildered look on Hikari's. Rei's of course was neutral as always but it was my German roommate that I gave my attention to. She seemed to share my dread, yet why? What was so wrong about someone drinking what smelled... like... like... beer?

I turned it around in my head, still trying to piece together the mystery and the all of a sudden my eyes crew wide as it came to me. It so obvious that I felt like calling myself a baka.

'Damnit! How long has she been here and why didn't I hear her come in? Damnit!'

"So what's this about Ibuki in skin tight leather? I didn't know you liked em that way Pilot Ikari?" The older woman teased. At least that hadn't changed.. even though I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. But her voice was cold and impersonal as she said it and I was still Pilot Ikari to her. That was still the same as well. Then again it hadn't even been a full day yet, so I had no right to get my hopes up.

Of course it still hurt, but what could I do?

'Maya in skin tight leather... ' the thought came back to me and had the expected result as my cheeks filled with a rosy red that made Asuka snort and Hikari blush as well. This of course set the red head into a rant about my pervertedness and Hikari into a bout of trying to defend my honor while I adverted my head in embarrassment... or believed embarrassment.

I know my faults and I know my quirks very well - mainly due to a certain Evangelion pilot's constant reminders and teases - and I did know how to use them to my own advantage at times. With me properly blushing at the naughty thoughts, attention had been adverted from the earlier scene, relieving me off having to come up with a suitable lie.

"So, what are you doing here Rei?" The Major was on her second can, but she still seemed as alert as ever

'Damnit?'

And then there are those times where I forget one crucial piece of the puzzle and the whole plan falls apart. Usually ending with me being chased around the apartment by Asuka for some slight or another. But I feared this would end a whole lot worse.

'Why couldn't they just put more alcohol in those things, I mean come on. They're screwing me over here. She should have been wasted by now.'

"Home work!" Asuka cut in before Rei could speak, leaving her with her cute little mouth slightly open. And yes, Rei does have a cute mouth for those of you who didn't know.

"Yes, miss Katsuragi. English home work." Hikari put in as well, trying desperately to get our blue haired classmate to get the hint and play along.

"Home work, eh... "

"Correct Major. We were assigned to write a fictional story using three distinct concepts such as action, drama, suspense or horror. The group was to combine these elements to produce a piece to present for the class."

"Yeah and I had to get stuck with these two losers as partners." Asuka grumbled under her breath loud enough for everyone to hear.

"I am as displeased with this arrangement as you are Sohryu, yet there is no need to continue bickering over it."

"I'm not bickering!"

"Calm down, Asuka. I guess I'll let you four get back to your work then. Oh and I'm leaving for Matsushiro tomorrow. I expect you two to behave yourselves while I'm away." The Major was looking directly at me the whole time as if to emphasize her point. But it wasn't necessary, I knew who she was talking to.

"I'm going to bed now, so you all keep it down now, ok."

"Goodnight then Miss Katsuragi."

"Good night Hikari."

Misato gave me one last look that I couldn't decipher before heading off to her room.

The silence left in her wake lasted for a few minutes as we all just stared awkwardly at each other, or more specifically at Rei. Truthfully I believe we were all just surprised to hear her not only say so many words at one time but for that whole little git about the school work. Asuka's half hearted attempt at a save almost got us all caught, yet Rei was able to come up with some serious bull in the scant amount to time left to her.

I had to admit, I was impressed.

"Wow, Ayanami. That was... I mean... " I tired to compliment her but ultimately failing of course.

"Alright, I'll give you your props on that one First, but don't think for a second that I needed your help. I was fully capable of handling the situation."

"Of course you were Sohryu."

"Was that sarcasm Rei?" Hikari said with a giggle.

"It had better not have been!"

"Asuak! Keep your voice down."

"Sorry Misato!" I called out, trying to quell the situation.

"Quit apologizing you twit, she was talking to me!"

"Didn't I just say to keep your voice down Asuka?" Our purple haired guardian cried again from behind her door.

"Ikari-kun. I believe we should adjourn for the moment and continue this another time. "

'Did she just say adjourn... ?' I couldn't help but think to myself as I nodded my assent.

"Did she just say adjourn?" Hikari seemed to share my thought.

"...sigh, I can't believe I have to work with these whackouts."

"Asuka!"

"Whatever." the German girl said with a toss of her hair.

The girls said their goodbyes then and made their exits after we all agreed to meet again for lunch the next day. It felt strange talking to them like that, like everything was fine and that we hadn't been discussing topics that would mostly change our whole lives, as if we were just... kids.

But we weren't just kids were we? And we probably would never be. The Angels themselves were enough, but this, this whole thing with the Matrix was just too confusing, too complicated. There were so many questions and so few answers. My life never did make much sense before, so I shouldn't have been surprised that it was starting to make even less now.

But enough of that. I was standing on the balcony looking out over Tokyo 3, the city that I had been chosen to protect. There were times when I wondered if they even cared, those countless people who always found themselves rushing to their little holes, praying that they would survive, that they would see their loved ones again, that this would be the last time, the last time.

Did they feel grateful for what we did, for the pain that we had to endure for their sakes? Did they ever find themselves wondering whether or not if 'those pilots' were alright or how they felt about fighting those demons who came to end humanity?

Did anyone appreciate what we did? Anyone?

...sigh.

Did it even matter?

I found myself wondering how Neo felt to have the weight of the safety of the human race on his shoulders. How did he deal with it because I didn't think I was strong enough.

And the Angels... what the hell did they have to do with the Matrix? It didn't make any sense. I knew barely anything at all about why we were fighting those Heaven sent devils and coupled with what little I knew about the Matrix, the whole situation was throwing my fourteen year old mind into loops trying to piece together the facts.

'What were they doing to the Angel that was at Antarctica?

Too many questions, too few answers

"You always seem to get yourself into seriously f'ed over situations don't you Third?"

I turned to see Asuka leaning against the balcony's door frame looking out into the city as well. Apparently she had took the time to change into more comfortable clothes, a pair of really short shorts and a loose fitting pink T-shirt with a wide neck, while I stood dazed in my own little world.

Of course this meant that I had to struggle harder to keep my eyes above her shoulders a little more than usual. I'll never understand why girls did things like that, dress in revealing clothes or do things that practically command you to take notice of them and then turn around and catch an attitude when they see you doing it.

Everything about them was a riddle, one that I really didn't feel up to solving. Asuka, Rei, Hikari, Misato, Devine, Mana, Maya... what the hell had I gotten myself into?

"You said that your little orientation got interrupted earlier, what happened?" I figured she'd get around to speaking what was on her mind sooner or later. It wasn't like her to stand in a companionable silence with me of all people. Kaji maybe... no definitely, but not me. So there had to be something on her mind.

And of course it had something to do with the Matrix...

"Agents showed up." I surprised myself a bit at how collected my voice seemed as I said those words.

"Are you serious? What happened, what did you do?" her eyes flashed as her mind tried to take in this new information. Understandable considering what happened last time.

"Ha, what do you expect? I ran. Just like everybody else."

"Ran? But you fought them off last time, why didn't you...?" Confusion was clearly evident in her voice and her expression as she drew her brows down in concentration.

"That was a fluke, Asuka. It... it was like when we're in Eva."

"When you go berserk?" I could feel the underlying animosity in her voice as she spoke. This was an old issue, one that she would probably not let go anytime soon.

"No... not like then. Ok, maybe a little, but.. it..." ...sigh. That whole conversation was getting to me. Too much had happened back there with the people of Zion. I knew I was acting like a whinny like kid getting all flustered over the whole issue, but it was who I was. It was how I did things.

A lot of the issues in my life stemmed from me not being able to deal with my problems, mainly because when I didn't know what to do I just ran, running had always been the only escape, but even I knew that it only made things worse. But it was all I had, so I clung to it like the last life line of a sinking ship, one that was going to pull me under no matter how hard I fought. And of course there's the whole I can't swim issue and you can use that for whatever other metaphor you want.

"I don't know how to explain it ok. It's just that, when I see them attack you two, when they... hurt you two, or my friends... I can't take it, I have to..."

"What, save us? Protect us? The great Invincible Shinji Ikari to the rescue? As if we needed your protection. We aren't defenseless little girls who can't handle themselves on the field, we aren't like those giddy little brainless twits at school Ikari."

"I know that! Don't you think I know that! I know that you can hold your own, but it's not about that."

"So what is it about then, Shinji! What the hell is it about!"

"I..."

"What?"

"You.. you're ..."

"What is it Ikari? What is it?"

"You're all I have alright! You, Rei, Misato, you're all I have and probably all I'll ever get. I can't lose you... I can't... lose you, like I did mother."

There was that silence again.

She didn't say anything for a long awhile, she just stood there giving me this weird look like she was weighing me on scales in her mind. I meant what I said. I couldn't lose them, they were like family to me, something that I never really had. When I was in Eva I had a chance to protect the only things that mattered to me, I had the power to keep them safe and I would use that power. I couldn't fail, I couldn't afford to lose because then none of it would matter anymore.

I didn't even hear her walk up to me, I guess I was too deep into my own thoughts to pay much attention to the outside world, but she just stood there beside me and looked out into at the slowly darkening sky.

"We aren't weak, Shinji and we don't need your protection."

"Asuka I..."

"Shut up Shinji." she said softly, cutting me off. "As long as we all fight at a hundred percent we'll be fine. But that means you can't just go out there and fight on your own and do that Berserker crap, you understand? We can't have someone fighting like that on our team or one day you just might attack us."

"I wouldn't do that Asuka and you know it."

"But that's the point, Ikari, you're not the one in control when it happens, so you need to keep yourself in check or we'll all pay for it in the end."

"You do know how hypocritical this all sounds coming from you right? Oww!"

"Serves you right, Baka."

"I didn't even do anything... you didn't have to hit me... " I grumbled to myself under my breath

"What was that? I didn't quiet catch that last one Third?"

"I didn't say anything."

"Of course you didn't." It was impossible not to note the purely satisfied tone in her voice. If it wasn't for her abusive nature this would have been a really nice moment, one of the few that we had had and I guess it kind of eased my troubled thoughts a bit... but only a bit.

"I can't guarantee that I can stop doing that, when I see one of you hurt it just... I'll try to fight harder so that it won't have to come to that."

"Good boy..."

"I'm not a dog Asuka."

"You sure because with the puppy eyes of yours I could have sworn..."

"Hey!"

"Shinji..." her soft voice cut me off again in surprise and something inside immediately perked up. My Asuka senses were tingling.

"Um, what... is it Asuka?"

"Where's my dinner?"

"Uh..." crap.

/WRW/

The next day in class was just like any other... which pretty much entailed that life was beeing a lazy bastard at the time and didn't feel like sparking anything up to keep us lowly mortals from our boredom. Even the new girl was looking just as dead as the rest of us. And as the day seemed to drag on the Great Battle of Class 2A was waged and was lost to the fiends of the dream world as the final student fell to Sleeps mighty clutches.

Boredom was a real killer.

But it was even more so because Touji wasn't there for some reason. My spiky haired brethren wasn't one to ditch school, especially with his grades, so the situation didn't bode well.

The only thing that I knew of that would keep him out of the classroom, was an Angel attack or his sister. And since I knew it wasn't the first, the possibility that it could have been the second put a painful clench on my heart.

'If I had only been stronger, if I hadn't been such a weak little coward back then Touji's sister wouldn't have been hurt. Touji's sister... ha, I don't even know her name. What kind of monster cripples a little girl and doesn't even know her name.'

My sigh was barely adubile in the classroom turned funeral palor. Hell, even the old man had put himself to sleep with his droning. It would have been a fine day for an Angel Attack. They would have won hands down with no contest in the state that we were in.

'Touji's sister...' my thoughts drifted back to the mysterious girl who I had never meet, yet who's blood was still on my hands.

'I'll... I'll go see here today after class. I owe her that much at least, right? Yeah, I will go see her. It'll have to be quick though or Misato'll be pissed. Oh... wait, she's not here, but knowing her she's probably keeping tabs on me.'

'Wait a minute...'

I had to pause for a minute as I sat there with my hand holding my chin up whille my dazed mind imagined the Sensei droning on and on about whatever, tying to piece together what I had just said. Something was wrong about this whole picture and Touji's sister had nothing to do with it.

'Section 2, where were they that night? Did they follow me? I remember Misato saying that they wouldn't do anything to interfere in our lives unless we were in danger and I believe getting shot at counts as danger, hell it was life threatning.'

'So what happened to them that night I ran to Maya-san's apartment? Did I lose them again on the way home? I don't think I even checked... did I? Aghh... now I'm starting to get confused.'

I gave it some thought and deduced that I did lose the usually Troop of goons who tailed me on my way over to Maya's, so that meant that Father didn't know where I was that night. That lifted my spirit because for a second there I was likely to have a heart attack thinking that he knew all along. But anyway... I'll have to be carefully next time if I have to meet them somewhere. I doubt that they'll be as easy to get rid of a second time around.

BRINGGGG!

"Agghh!" The sound of the lunch bell caught me off guard as I tried to get up in a rush but ended up tangling my foot in the chair legs and crashing to the floor amid the laughs and cries of my classmates as they joked at my expense, secretly glad to have any sort of distraction get lost in. And of course it wasn't like I could block out the darkly muttered 'Baka' from the smirking red head. It was Hikari who gave me a hand as she tired to hold in her own giggles.

"You really should watch yourself Shinji or you'll end up in the Nurse's Office."

"Oh no, I 'm fine Incho, I just wasn't paying attention."

"Yeah, we figured as much Third." My roommate put in as she made her way towad us.

"Umm... " I noticed Rei rising as she headed my as well and suddenly felt like I had been caught in an ambush. And with the expected looks in their eyes, I knew that the girls were determined to get some answers this time.

"No more cryptic riddles any more Third. I want the full truth this time, got me?"

"Indeed Ikari-kun, there is no time for any more delays."

"We need to know Shinji, you have to understand." Hikari tried to explain.

I did understand, but that didn't mean that I wasn't wary of the consequences.

"Uh... "

"Hey Shinji, did you hear?" Kensuke's excited cry tore the girls attention away from and provided me my escape. Don't you just love timely place interruptions?

"No Ken, I probably didn't."

"Oh come on! You're supposed to be an Eva Pilot, how could you not know about the new Eva that's being shipped here?"

"What? A new Eva? But that means..."

"Yep. Hey do you think you can put in a good word to Misato for me. I would so love to ride that baby!"

"Please, you wouldn't even be able to get one of them started let alone pilot one Aida." I had been expecting that from Asuka the moment Kensuke started on about a new Eva. But could it really be true, another Eva and another pilot.

"Rei, is there really another Unit coming?" 'Of course for all your Eva needs just ask Rei, our personal Nerv specialist who's always ready and willing to answer any Nerv related question you may have.' I told myself in my best cheesy salesman voice.

"That is classified information Ikari-kun and Aida is not cleared to hear it."

... ok, maybe not so ready or willing.

"Oh, come on. You can't keep me out of the loop. I mean, what with Touji gone today and all, what am I supposed to do now?"

I don't know why but there was something strange about this situation and the slight wince that Asuka gave at the mention of Touji's name kinda through me off, but that was probably because she just didn't like him, but why would Rei do the same. Of course if you didn't know Rei very well you probably wouldn't have caught it like I did.

"Rei, Asuka? What's going on? Is there a new Eva or not?"

They just stood there but neither would look me in the eye no matter how many times I tried to get them to answer, they kept their silence, their ashamed silence. After a while I just stood there with my mouth hanging a bit, probably with so stupid expression on as well. It must have been shock. I just couldn't believe it, I couldn't believe that they would keep this from me.

"Why?" That simple question brought their attention back to me, confusion on their faces.

"Why what, Third?" she tried to put the usual amount of heat in her voice but she didn't quite manage it, giving Asuka a slightly tired sulky tone to her voice.

"Why didn't you tell me? We're supposed to be a team, so why didn't you let me know?" I could hear my own voice getting louder at each word, but I didn't care and I couldn't stop it if I wanted to. I was just too disappointed.

"Because he expressed his will yesterday that he did not wish for you to know."

"Oh great job, Doll. Don't tell him that you dipstick!"

"He... ? Who father?"

Rei was about to open her mouth but the searing glare from Asuka stopped her in her tracks... which was a first truly, seeing as how little attention Rei usually paid Asuka.

"Why wont you tell me?"

"Because you don't need to know." Was the German's reply.

"And how the hell does that work out? Why wouldn't father want me to know?"

"Who said anything about your father?"

"THEN WHO DAMNIT!" A few kids poked their heads into the class at my outburst but the the vibes coming off of Asuka and the rest of us turned them away. Apparently they didn't want any pilot trouble.

"Um... Ayanami, the only person you talked to yesterday was Touji on the roof? But I mean you couldn't be talking about him. I mean that's just crazy... right?" She added when Asuka turned her head and when Rei wouldn't meet her confused gaze either.

"Touji?" that simple statement was all Kensuke could say, his mind drawing blanks.

"No, that's ... impossible? They couldn't have chosen Touji? They couldn't have?" It was just too much. Nerv had dragged one of my best friends into their hellish war and none of my so called teammates had the guts to even tell me.

"I can't believe I came back her for this."

"Ikari-kun, he said..."

"I don't care what he said! You should have told me."

"It was his decision and he made it without you, he had that right Shinji! You 'should' understand that."

"Fuck you Soryu! You two were supposed to be my teammates, you were supposed to be my friends, but obviously that was a little too big a job for the both of you, so you too can just fuck off. How can I fight beside people I can't trust? Hell at least at Zion I knew who my friends were."

"Shinji we..."

"Don't Asuka!... Don't. I don't want to hear another word from you damnit. Do you understand Soryu?"

I had nothing esle to say to either of them and I right at that moment I could barely stand to be in their presence. It was... distasteful. Now I knew how Misato felt, but it didn't matter. She didn't tell me either, so screw her too. I did catch the disappointed look in Hikira's eyes as I pushed my way pass my 'fellow pilots'. My gut told me that I wasn't the only one who lost a friend that day.

But I didn't really get a chance to dwell on that fact because my cell phone choose that moment to go off.


	11. like a cold reckoning Part 1

/Welcome to the Real World/

- lawless priest -

0.11 a call to arms

The screeching of the Angel alarms seemed almost as if they were the trumpets of hell itself, sounding out their dire dirges to the confused hurrying populous, all the while signaling the fast approach of the grim reaper on his fiery steed.

And who knew, maybe they were.

But the young pilot ducking and dashing through the chaotic streets of the Fortress city, dodging speeding vehicles and people equally as he ran, didn't take the time to contemplate the matter as he headed for the nearest entrance to the GeoFront, almost tripping on his feet while watching with silent yet heavy trepidation as the unfamiliar (or too familiar yet unwanted - in his case) men in the black suits following him with their shaded eyes while the terrified citizens scattered to and fro between them in search of shelter and safety. It was strange but he never would have imagined that he would ever think to call Eva anything close to safe.

Times change and opinions as well, but mainly Shinji Ikari just didn't want to deal with those suited types right then. Between Angels and Agents... it wasn't really much of a choice, not with his friend Toji Suzuhara in the pilot seat of yet another Eva Unit and an unidentified enemy on the horizon. The fake cyborgs could wait indefinitely for all he cared.

He hadn't expected them but there they had been as he made his way out of school and the steep betrayal he felt in the presence of his supposed 'teammates'. Rounding a turn the pilot caught a fleeting glance of a dark figure wearing shades and an perpetually ominous expression. This was no Section 2 operative, not by far. Just the sight of one of their kind nearly gave the younger Ikari a heart attack. And when another showed up on the opposite street he knew it was just a trick of the mind. But there was no time for such things. He had a duty to perform.

..for his friend he'd weather even the storm Agents could bring.

Luckily he hadn't needed to as the steady stream of terrified citizens making their way to the nearest shelter blocked their path and their view of him as he ducked quickly through the gates to Nerv, hoping beyond hope that they wouldn't follow him. There was no way the team of guards at the gates would ever be able to take on their kind with any level of competence. Nothing would stand in their way if they wished to follow him.

The pilot didn't even remember the trip to the Eva cages or the showers for that matter. Only the slight glimpses in the bathroom mirrors of him changing clothes and the slamming of a locker door before the sterile, lifeless walls of Nerv HQ swallowed up his imagination with its seemingly endless maze of useless hallways, corridors and elevators that would all eventually lead him to his despairing destiny.

A familiar yellow substance filled his entry plug as a kaleidoscope of color flashed before those deep blue eyes, bringing with it memories of the last time he had been within that seat.

He remembered dying, clearly he remembered that, but there were other images... a green eyed women in a lab coat with a soft smile, a tall brown eyed American man in a dark flowing coat that might as well have been a dress, fighting an angry man with shades and a tie. He remembered dying again, but it wasn't his own death, but it felt the same... along with a loss so utterly complete it damn near crushed his fragile spirit.

'Who was th...?'

"Shinji, focus. Your sync rate is dropping."

The younger Ikari found himself shaking his head through the sickly yellow tinted fog of the entry plug in confusion as the 'Real World' came roaring back to him with its vivid detail.

"Huh, oh, sorry Ibuki-san. Wait... Maya-san?" confusion was evident in his voice as he realized who he was speaking to.

"Hurry Shinji. You need to be getting into your combat position." The soft yet urgent quality in the older woman's voice brought back what was at stake. 'Toji..'

"Oh, uh... yeah, sorry." He didn't know what he was thinking. An Angel was attacking so he couldn't be sidetracked by useless images, but inside he was silently glad that Maya was ok. There wasn't much indication whether or not she had survived the Agent's attack back with the resistance. But none of that mattered at that time. She was safe and he had a job to do. Shinji swore to speak to her later after the battle was over and this gave him some much needed courage.

Courage that he would surely need.

11.0 like a cold reckoning

/Part 1

"Unit-01 Launching."

Lt. Ibuki gave the call and I could hear Asuka asking who would direct the attack while Rei answered that the Commander would.

'Father...'

The pounding G-forces cut off any other internal or external thoughts as I was rushed to the surface. Normally I would have been nervous and a bit anxious before the coming battle, but strangely I felt calm, my mind composed. I could do this.

I was sorely mistaken.

"Doesn't this seem a little odd to you people? I mean we could do a much better job fighting together than being split up like this."

"Orders are meant be followed for a reason. The commander will direct us."

"Whatever Wonder Girl. You've got a lot of faith in that cold bastard, don't you?" Asuka's sarcastic reply to my other female co-pilot came through my comm-unit but I wasn't paying either of them much attention. Whether or not father's orders would work was the last thing on my mind.

'I have to do this quick so I can find out what happened to Misato and Touji. There can't be any screw ups. None!' I told myself.

"Come on Ikari, we can do this. Remember, we can't be beat, not by those FBI wannabes and not by these poor celestial imitations. Do you here Ikari? We can't be beat." I told myself or at least I thought it was me telling myself. There were times I didn't know who was speaking.

"What the hell are you saying back there Third? Are you taking to yourself... and in English? Since when did you... ?"

"I thought I told you to shut up Sohryu! I don't know what you're talking about and I don't care." That didn't sound like me at all and was obviously not the smartest thing to say but I was still a little ticked from before.

"Hey! You don't get to get fresh with me Third. You're the one talking to yourself! So you'd better watch your mouth and get it togeth... !"

I tuned her out as best I could while I waited as patiently as I could in my seat for an update on the situation. Seconds ticked by into minutes and so on while my once steady nerves slowly bled away my optimism and ate up my confidence. We were slowly approaching a full hour and a half and in about six seconds Asuka was going to give HQ a scathing piece of her mind about the inability of Angels, Technicians, and Commanding Officers in their duty to get their jobs done when they were supposed to.

This would be the fourth occurrence. I silently hoped there wouldn't be a fifth.

"...sigh. Well this sure is boring. You'd think these bakas would try to be on time for their own funerals."

"Ibuki-san, has their been any word from Matsushiro, is Misato-san alright?"

"No, Shinji-kun. There's been no word." That didn't sound good at all. What was going on at the Secondary Test Site? I may have still been angry at Misato but that didn't mean I wanted to see her hurt and with the way things were going...

"So what are we supposed to do, just sit here and wait?"

"Hai, pilot." Fuyutsuki-sensei replied back. "A team has been sent to inquire into what has transpired. You are all hereby assigned to standby until further orders are given."

"Just great... another hour of this." I may have felt the same but I kept my thoughts to myself which was something that I didn't think Asuka was capable of.

"And pilot Sohryu, if you insist on clogging the comm lines with your childish whining any longer you will be taken off of the combat roster until you can act like the soldier you were trained to be. Is that understood?" The Sub-Commander added and Asuka gave her sullen affirmative.

"Good, HQ out."

"...sigh." I could already tell that it was going to be a long day.

/WRW/

We didn't hear from Misato and Ritsuko-san until seven hours later. Apparently they survived with minimal injuries but Misato was going to have her arm in a sling for a while but that wasn't the problem.

The whole bridge crew was there, except for the two we needed. We were in one of the many debriefing rooms on Sub Level B waiting for our esteemed Tactical Officer and the head of Project E to arrive to fill us in on the situation. I sat in my seat quietly, trying to fight off the sleep that weighed down my eyelids ever since I had gotten out of the plug hours before. A few seats next to me Asuka it seemed had already lost that battle as her light snores filled the air. It was understandable, considering it was somewhere close to Four am and we were still, supposedly on active duty... or standby at least. Catching up on the sleep we weren't allowed to have in the Evas was looking like a very good idea every waking moment.

Rei of course didn't seem to be effected at all. Ok... ok, so I was lying. Ayanami had drifted off the moment one of the three remaining bridge techs Aoba-san, told us that we might be in for a long stay. The Great Ms. Sohryu found this to be an excellent chance to bring up her favorite choice of harassment topics when it came to my blue haired co-pilot, but I wasn't paying attention again and truly wasn't in the mood to care either way.

'Toji, you have to be alright. We've come too far to lose you now.'

I felt like sighing again. Inadvertently I had gained someone who could finally understand how I felt about piloting Eva that didn't happen to have a uterus, who wouldn't ignore me, ridicule me, and use me as a tool and already things were looking shady.

It was like God had it out for us male pilots, like there was some special target painted all over us that we couldn't see or wash off.

Either that or the guy just had really good aim. He was God after all.

'... sigh.'

"Sorry I'm late. Is everyone here?" her voice oozing wariness, with the good doctor behind her, Misato Katsuragi strode in with a tired panther's agitated gait. One arm in a sling, her hair a little off and her left eye twitching a bit as the door slammed shut behind her and waking the others up, it was clearly obvious that today had not been the Major's day.

"Ma'am." Maya-san called out softly as she handed my guardian the latest reports as she made it to the center podium. The Major gave the younger woman a undecipherable look that lingered a little longer than it should have before she took the reports and sighed at their contents.

"Screwed again it seems."

"What's that supposed to mean?" her arms stretched in a yawn, Asuka waited for her answer. "Yeah, what happened?" Aoba asked at her side, taking the words right out of my mouth. But it was Ritsuko-san who answered us.

"We were attacked."

"What?"

"By who? Maya and Asuka asked, their surprise obvious.

"We don't know. They were western, possibly American. Who knows how many?" The Major answered off handedly while scanning the reports.

"They practically tore the place apart, but we only saw three of them." Dr. Akagi said quietly from the side, almost too quietly in fact. You have no idea how strange it was to hear the doctor sound so... out of it. I mean, here was Ritsuko Akagi, the coldest, most clinically impersonal woman I knew looking like a deer caught in the headlights. And I wasn't trying to be mean or anything, I sort of liked the doctor. She was fine company when she wasn't at Nerv. But this was just wrong.

"You'd think they were business men or some high end salary men but.. the way they moved, it was... impossible. Nobody could do the things they did. "

I couldn't help but share a look with Ayanami and Sohryu at that comment. I opened my mouth to say something but Misato beat me too it.

"Doctor Akagi, get yourself together! You have a job to do." the stern look Misato gave her was not something you'd give a long time friend. It was purely business, but it got the doctor back to her wits. She apologized and cleared her throat before taking the papers the Major handed her.

_... "You'd think they were business men..."_

It just sounded like too much of a coincidence.

"What about the pilot... What about the Fourth Child?" I questioned Misato, needing to know the truth. I had to know about Toji. Asuaka and Rei gave me a look out the corner of my vision but I paid them no attention, I was getting rather good at that of late. But it was the brief moment of unease the Major displayed before she fell back into her military mode that told me that any naive notions that any male pilot could survive the curse that weighed on our breed was poorly conceived.

"The Fourth Child is..."

"The pilot was abducted." Ritsuko-san blurted out. Misato called her out but she wasn't paying attention, I could tell from the deep, faraway look in her eyes. She was reliving the moment, reliving the horror it must have been to see those devils in action.

"They took him before he even made it to the entry plug. "

"Doctor."

"We don't even know how they made it in."

"Doctor!"

"They were just... there, out of the blue and they snatched him, trashed the equipment and then played havoc on the those poor bastards we had there to guard the place."

"DOCTOR! That is enough! Guard! Yes, you there, you are to escort the Doctor back to the Medical Ward and keep watch over her until ordered otherwise."

"Understood." One of the faceless Section-2 agents waiting outside the briefing room replied as he complied with the order and led Dr. Akagi away who didn't seem to pay him any mind, too lost in her own nightmares.

There was a pregnant moment of silence after that, one that no one seemed willing to fill up, least of all me, but I needed answers.

"So, they took Toji?" It was more a statement than a question but I was looking for a bit of confirmation. Maybe Sohryu was wrong, maybe Toji wasn't the fourth. Inside I didn't believe that but there was still a chance. Of course it was hard not to notice the surprised look my 'Guardian' gave me at the mention of his name.

"It is true that the Fourth Child was abducted, but we have teams already out to retrieve him." She couldn't even say his name, but she really didn't need to. Just her not having corrected me confirmed it.

"So what now? They got Suzuhara, Are these weirdos going to try to snatch us too?" Asuka asked with her ususal arrogance but I sensed a bit of unease in her as well, if only under the surface.

"Unlikely but it is a possibility so we are doubling your guard and confining you to your quarters until further notice."

"What? You can't..."

"What of the Angel? Are we not still under standby status." It wasn't every day that Rei interrupted someone. Of course with it being Asuka that only made it all the more entertaining. Hell, you should have seen the faces the red head was making. She was so red I could have sworn she was going to burst a blood vessel.

"Your standby status has been revoked. And until further notice you will be staying in the apartment next time mine. Rei, you will be taken home to get what you'll need for your stay and then you will be moved in as I have stated. That is all. The agents outside will escort you."

And with that she turned to the bridge crew and started taking their reports and giving them their orders while leaving us to our own devices, or more specifically to the devices of the Ghost like Agents escorting us. It looked like I wouldn't be able to have that conversation with Ibuki-san as I had planned.

/WRW/

"Well this sucks. I can't believe that Stooge let himself get bagged like an armature and leave the rest of us to suffer for it." Sohryu was complaining again for the fourth time in the last hour. I was starting to think that was some type of special number, signifying deeds of dire intents and purposes were at hand.

We were back at the apartment in the living room with Rei staying with us. Security reasons she said. I didn't care. I was still pissed at them for not telling me about Toji being the Fourth but I was too busy cursing the Agents to worry about that.

I knew it was them. It couldn't be anyone else. But why? It didn't make any sense. If they wanted pilots they've have come after us first, or at least for me because of what happened that night from before. I didn't even know if they knew I was the One. It was still strange to think of myself in such a light, but with the obviously superior intelligence gathering abilities the Agents or at least their masters had, you'd think they have found out by then and would have made steps to deal with the problem rather than the half hearted efforts it seemed they were taking.

They easily could have taken me any number of times in the last week but they did nothing. Even when they did it was as if them catching me was only an afterthought.

There was that one time, that night they attacked the folks at Zion but that could have just been them trying to catch a runaway or to just end the resistance.

So why Suzuhara? And why now? Was it to get back at me? 'Did they' know that much about me already? Who knew, I barely had any 'new' info on them. Only the folks at the Resistance would have that, but I couldn't get in touch with Zion. I didn't even know where they were hiding or how many of them had survived.

I still didn't even complete my 'training'. If being straped down into some aging poor excuse for a leather chair while someone screws with your mind, telling you that you're going to learn Kung fu could be considered training then yeah.

I swear, they were all pretty whacked out at Zion but I was just as lost since I knew I would end up going back to them some time latter if only for answers at least.

But there was little chance of me getting into a position to find them with the doubling - more like tripling - of the guard. There'd be no way for me to get out of the apartment without them knowing, let alone them following.

And I found out much to my displeasure, that it would be a long time before any of us saw the outside world again.

AN: Part 1 complete and on to Part 2. I really wanted to have this huge Neo/Agent and Unit 01/Unit 03 battle in this chapter but it just didn't fit well into the story line... and because of the fact that I was working with 24 pages on one chapter and was forced to split it all into two parts. THERE WILL BE some serious asskickings evolved next round though. Just thinking about it kinda puts a smile on my face, haha...sigh. Anyway...Part 2 should be out within the week, hopefully. My computer died on me so I may not beable to actually update the finished chapter on time, but I'll find away.

other than that... I'm still taking sugguestion. One of my reviewers from Boss Ikari wanted to see Kensukes wheel chair equiped with Nos. I laughed so hard when I read that. I'll have to see if I can fit it in. haha, I swear sometimes...

lawlesspriest hotmail . com

long live the smurfs, folk!

/priest/


	12. like a cold reckoning Part 2

/Welcome to the Real World/

- lawless priest -

/0.12 uncontainable guilt/

Dreams...

Something all men were said to have. Something that could be one's most precious motivation or one's heaviest burdens, where the actions or inactions taken in the waking world could turn this subconscious realm into an individual's personal playground or their sin's favorite battlefield.

For the last of the Ikari bloodline it was the latter that had him watching the world out of the corner of his eyes, casting shifty glances at all those around while at Nerv and giving his school teachers, friends and even his father the evil eye for no apparent reason... other than that obvious ones.

His dreams... more like nightmares, were something he earnestly could have done without. Recently they all seemed to have the same theme... Unit 03 and more importantly... one Toji Suzuhara.

For some reason his subconscious felt that really twisting the guilty thoughts in his head and sadly, using them to his disadvantage was an endeavor not only worth taking, but one worth taking on a nightly basis for nearly a month. That night found Shinji in the grips of such a state, lost in the hell that was his tortured dreamscape.

_Asuka..._

_Rei..._

_We were all back in our Evas, reliving the last Angel attack. This was one of the more common themes my dreams seemed to be comprised of recently but they never stayed the same by the end. Some had a habit of twisting in the most bizarre ways, throwing me in situations that thankfully were never likely to happened, yet were still able to keep my heart racing, its chambers thrumming loudly in my chest all night. For in dreams such realistic logic held no such sway._

_"It is here." Ayanami's soft declaration cut through all of my thoughts and the sight of the enemy on our monitors dried all of our tongues. _

_"That's the Angel, impossible?" Asuka cried out._

_"It cannot be?" even Ayanami sounded astonished or as astonished as her soft breathy voice could._

_"But isn't that... an Eva?" I thought out loud, while silently thinking on the side how odd it was to hear Rei actually surprised by something, but it was only a passing thought. You know how dreams are._

_"Correct. It has been classified as the Thirteenth Angel." Father's impassionate baritone confirmed our suspicions._

_"No... no... the pilot, there's a kid in there just like one of us. Toji's in there!" I knew Toji was in there. He had been in all of my dreams so far. The odds that this wasn't the case were highly unlikely._

_"Quit whining you baka and do something about it.. ah, crap, hey, what the...!"_

_Asuka was the first to go and I didn't even see her fall. It was all over the radio, though. Only her screams and the surprised yells from the command center penetrated my liquid filled ears as I rushed to get into position. _

_Futilely I hoped things would come out different this time around but none of the commands, more like advice considering Asuka didn't take commands very well, they offered seemed to help. And the blaring static over the comm-system as I tried unsuccessfully to raise the German girl on the line gave silent proof of the winner of the two Eva's brief contest of might. _

_Rei was next, never even being able to get a word out before her mecha was laid on its back side. Her screams of pain didn't count as words, but the choice few I had for my so called father could be considered a combination of foul words and incomprehensible grunts and growls as he severed her Eva's apparently Angel infected arm while her mind was still synced to the Eva, but in any case Ayanami went down, leaving me the last man standing, the last soldier to hold the fort and I really didn't feel like holding down the fort. _

_It was a short time later before the enemy came into my Eva's sight without the aid of the tactical feeds from HQ and up close it was a sight to behold. Looking very much like a dark, sinister, streamline version of a Unit-01 and 02 combination just without the horn, Evangelion Unit-03 stood tall but walked with a lazy hunch in its back like some kind of lost wild beast with no prey to hunt. I could still see the entry plug in the back with a strange viscous substance holding it in place. The pilot must've still been inside. _

'_Touji... another kid, just like me.' How could I fight knowing the pilot would feel every hit, every blow? _

_How could I defeat such a foe? _

_Apparently, I couldn't. This was a nightmare, so I should have guessed it'd turn out this way. All of the others had, no matter how much I fought back._

_But I guess it didn't really make a difference in the true course of things. I never had any real control in the waking world, so why would my dreams be any different?_

_But too much internal thinking cost me. I didn't even see the blow. One minute the enemy Eva was just standing there watching me while giving me the evil eye and then it was gone, with only the mist created by the uplifted dirt caused by its unseen escape to tell me that it had ever actually been there and not just a mirage or a figment of my imagination before brief seconds later its fist was coming down on me like a sledge hammer, blasting through my poorly crafted defenses and slamming into my bare armored chest. _

_I felt the ground first as it erupted around my megaton body and the pounding pain of my heart second as the enemy did just that, pound it's powerful fist on me repeatedly, like it was trying to beat its way, tear its way through me and rip the chambers of my heart asunder. _

_And yeah I did just say asunder. I do that sometimes when I'm nervous or in hectic situations. The pain starts to come, the panic starts to set in and I turn into a poetic genius. Isn't the world amazing, or at least dream world._

_Yep amazing, just like the majestic glint of the fading sun reflecting off of my once polished purple bio-mech as it flew through air, defying the laws of physics. Abstractly my mind began to try and calculate just how much power had to be exerted to actually be able to not only lift but flip something as large and heavy as an Eva in the air. _

_Of course the resulting explosion of my landing did a wonderful job of beating the crap out of that line of thought out of my head. _

_Agony blossomed on every part of my body to the point where I began to forget any sensation other than pain every existed. But.. I had that foot that lifted my armored ass off the country side and into the nearby mountains to thank for snapping me out of that as well. _

_Ah, that foot. He was such a wonderful character. I was so appreciable that I allowed him to make another appearance. Only this time he entered with a well aimed stomp which I greeted with a grunt. _

_Apparently my new friend the foot found this method to be quite appealing so he decided to do it again... and again... and... again. _

_But you know what? I was starting to get bored of that routine. So I figured I'd add my own bit to the show. The owner of the foot wasn't prepared for my more active role in our performance judging from the speed in which it left, no I'm sorry, flew from the scene. _

_I guess it wasn't a team player. The murderous yelling it seemed to be doing did a pretty fair job of vocalizing that point. _

_:Shinji you have to press the attack! You have to ... ttack or yo..'ll be pushed...ack/_

_There was a considerable amount of noise going on, but I filtered it out. Who really likes to listen to the buzzing of insects during a show. You know you can never really understand what people say in your dreams anyway. It's just more noise added in to help confuse you. Because that's what dreams are there for... to confuse and screw with your head. But besides all that, I had a performance to put on. The great entertainer Ikari Shinji was on the stage. His moves like steel magic, mesmerizing the crowd like that old 90's troupe River Dance._

_You remember River Dance don't you? _

_Of course you don't! No one does. Just like no one would expect the Ebony Eva to be able to stretch it's arms to such an absurd length. It wasn't natural. _

_Natural or not, the sinister hands wrapped around my throat crushing and constricting my lungs was a signal from god telling me that it didn't really matter at this point. _

_:Pilot, what are you doing? Why are you not fighting back/_

_More noise in ear, more distractions to contend with the lack of air reaching my brain. It was all starting to seem so... I don't even know? Nothing really seemed to matter much any more. Especially all that noise in my ear. What was the point? Didn't they understand how little it mattered? Didn't they know how little I cared?_

_I was dying... again. And it felt eerily as weird as the last time and it just happened to suck about as much as the last time as well._

_'I'm... sorry Touji, I... I wasn't good enough.'_

_'I'm sorry Morpheus... I wasn't the One.'_

_I got the brief feeling that something was wrong, that last thought wasn't one of mine, but it wasn't really important in any case. And the ghastly vision of mechanized death before me was making sure of that, but I didn't have time to appreciate my death scene's artistic value as my vision became cloudy, or as cloudy as it could get in a non-realistic environment, which happened to be pretty cloudy._

_And then the scene changed suddenly and the world cleared up minutely, fading back into place, piece by sketchy piece and then I found myself sitting up against a wall on the floor of some dilapidated hotel hallway surrounded by nauseous and decaying greenly painted walls that were pealing of in most places. _

'_Green...' I was starting to hate that color. But I had more important worries to care about. _

_My chest... my chest was on fire, my vision blurry and my life fading, I could feel it draining away with my blood that made its own rivers and streams down my torso from the numerous bullet holes I seemed to be sporting as I faded back and forth between blacking out. _

_I was barely able to look up as the eerily heavy, perfectly even footsteps of my killer came to a rest at my crimson stained feet, leaving the world in a darkly profound silence once again. You know the kind, the type of silence that Death dwelt and Angels abandoned. I knew that silence very well, it was there, ever present before every battle as I waited in my Plug Suit, hands sweaty, half drowning in that filth They told me was breathable. _

_But it didn't matter. At least I got one last look at my enemy's eyes, well, not really, the darkly tinted glasses he wore tended to impede any progress made in that area even as they added a bit more sinister appeal to an already vicious looking package the heartless death broker's business attire the monster in front of me had adopted or been assigned as his uniform of choice, knowing their types. _

_It was strange but I did know their types... a lot more than I should have in a dream or more than I ever did while I was awake. And I knew this monster before me far too well for my own liking._

_Oh, and he was a monster. _

_The others, they were just detached guard dogs, doing their 'supposed' civic duty without question, hesitation or true conscious thought. They were highly dangerous, indiscriminate killers with no soul. _

_But not this devil before me. No, this one was something else. Hell, it practically gave me an evil smirk as it gazed down at me with those hard brown eyes of its peeking out behind the tip of its shades while it looked down at me menacingly, or at least looked like it almost wanted to smirk but it merely didn't know how._

_Guess it didn't get enough practice in that area. Its job probably didn't require much expression. No matter, for it was skilled in other areas. Highly skilled some would say, sadistically skilled others would. _

_I was one of the latter. _

_Slowly, but not slowly enough for me, he raised his gun, that thick cold slab of metal with the words 'Desert Eagle' imprinted on the side casing, gleaming in the faint light like some ill omen, pointing it at my chest for one final blow that my dizzy head was almost aching to just have happen. _

_Pain this pronounced should not be something that must be endured. No one should have to deal with this level of agony for long, but that bastard seemed to be prolonging my end for his own sick, tormented pleasure. I briefly wondered if any of that made sense but once again it didn't matter or at least I just didn't care enough to correct myself._

_"Goodbye... Mr Ikari."_

_'What?' I wanted to say that out loud, but that wasn't a possibility. My tired body raised an eyebrow as my mind was left in a permanent 'huh?' sequence. I was positive that that last part was wrong some how. That wasn't what he was supposed to say._

_I tried to at least get a grunt of a question out before the deal went down but the resounding echo of the blast that rocked my body, sending it crashing back against the battered old wall and effectively ending my life put a stop to that. _

_All I could see was the code as my vision shrank away and the image of my killer faded into the background of a perverse world... nothing but the same green tinted darkness that had plagued me for so long until even it fled the scene, abandoning me like so many others. Mother, Father... God? Who knew? I knew I didn't._

_"Goodbye... Mr Ikari."_

/12. 0 like a cold reckoning/

/Part 2

"IKARI! WAKE UP YOU BAKA!"

"Aghh!" I screamed and cringed away from the steaming figure of German animosity before me only to slip over the edge of my bed in my hast to escape, landing unceremoniously on the floor. Sweat rolled off of my tired form and my aching head while I tried to get my bearings and fight away the haunting images of a nightmarish world that never existed. And hopefully never would.

"And you're supposed to be the One, let alone an Eva pilot. ...sigh. God help us, god help us all." was all the girl said as she stood before me, a strange, tired expression on her face with her hands on her shapely hips before walking...sorry stalking out.

I watched her low cut skirt swish this way and that with a sort of detached interest. Curled up on the floor with my head where my feet should have been left me in a pained position with a priceless view that many of my fellow classmates would have killed for but there were darker things on the forefront of my mind at the time for me to truly concentrate on such baser concerns.

But of course I did managed to file that scene away for further steady at a later time, as was proper procedure. And I was a stickler for following procedure.

The rest of the morning was spent in silence as we went about our business. It was a Sunday. Our day off. Neither of us had anywhere to go. Misato would obviously be watching me closely since now would be the best time for me to do something that I shouldn't have and Asuka had no one to go out with because of the whole Toji thing. So we were both stuck home with Misato already gone.

I, sitting in my room staring sadly at my SDAT in betrayal as the ancient machine read back _Low Bat_, was still trying to shake off the last vestiges of the dream, especially that last part. That incident had just felt a little too real for my fourteen year old psyche.

I was an unwilling soldier in a war between God's messengers and humanity, so I knew death was most likely close on my heals, but that didn't mean I needed another reminder of how easily my life could end.

Besides, there was no doubt that Asuka was more than qualified for that position anyway. At least my executer would be a sight worth seeing before I left for the next world. And hopefully she'd even wear a pair of those things she called shorts, they might as well be underwear considering how far up the go, to my execution.

"sigh..."

The soft sound from the living room filtered through the gap of my lightly cracked opened door and stole pass my distracted mental defenses, triggering my advanced German warning sensors and immediately snapping me back to attention.

Trouble was afoot.

"sigh..."

Repetition... the sign of agreement, the fall of doubt and the leader to conclusion. I knew what that brief expanse of breath meant, I had seen its like before and with that knowledge brought with it a deep shudder that flowed down to my bones.

Boredom...

There was far more than trouble a foot. This was a clear descent into out right disaster.

"Ikari, whacha doing?" her voice was low and far too cute to be healthy as she leaned down over my body, her lips so close to my ear I could feel strands of her rich, strawberry scented auburn hair whisk by her pale skin.

Tell me now, how obvious is it that I have a thing for this girl? ...sigh. But back to my tale.

"Huh!" My breath got caught in my throat. I hadn't even heard her footsteps. 'Hmm... Ninja Red must have up'ed her skills and was passing into Ninja Blue's level of discretion.' But I couldn't let fear consume me. It only meant I would have to make advances to further my own training.

The Red one had her head cocked to the side and still held the strange look she wore earlier that morning, only now its inquisitive nature had doubled. I couldn't leave her waiting for long, but I was still in unfamiliar territory. There was no clue what she was up to. You never knew what those Red Ninjas had planned until the end.

'Crafty German... I'll have to keep her busy.' Evasion was my primary tactic of course. It had served me well for many a day and would do so again.

"Uh... Nothing, really. Just... thinking."

"Thinking huh? About what?" her eyes were wide, the crystal blues of her orbs opened to their fullest for maximum effect. I had to pull away quickly least I be sucked in that glorious whirlpool so I could think strait, which was still a task, truthfully.

'Hmm... she never cared what I thought of before and had gone to great pains to let me know in full detail how much so, but I can't out right ask her. That could lead to painful and or evasive action on her part. I'll have to stall some more.' Now that it was decided It was time to put my plan in action. But...

'No.. nooo, not that!' It was in her eyes. That devious look, that mischievous twinkle. Damnit! She new my strategy. I needed time to make a new plan, I needed...'

"You know what, I don't really care. You're coming with me Third. So get dressed, we're moving out."

And like any General who has given her commands, she marched right out, leaving me with my mouth left open in stunned wonder before I even had a chance to initiate any of my hastily thought out secondary maneuvers.

'Damn she's good. You win for now Red Ninja, but the Ikari-clan will not fall so easily.'

Which was a massive lie because apparently I took too long getting dressed, at least by her standards, and ended up being dragged out of the house with my arm barely through my shirt sleeve while she signaled the elevator for the bottom floor. It was as clear a defeat if I ever saw one.

So much for the Ikari-clan.

/WRW/

It was nearly two hours later and we were most assuredly lost. And I had no doubt that the entire scene would be blamed on me some how, no matter who was truly at fault.

'Who ever it could be' Get it? Wink, wink. Nudge.. Nud.. "Ow, damnit! What is your problem? I haven't even done anything?"

"Your thoughtless dazing was annoying me. And of course it was thoughtless and don't you think otherwise. So you can close your mouth Ikari. As if you'd actually have something worth thinking about going on in that brain of yours anyway."

"Hey!"

"Quit dawdling Ikari and get a move on!"

"I wasn't dawdling... and you don't even know where we're going so why should I move?"

The college graduate didn't say anything, merely raising a manicured eye brow and cracking her knuckles.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah... because you say so." I mumbled while taking a grudging step forward.

The satisfied smile she sported only added to my injury.

"Good boy... just for that I'll give you a treat. You get the pleasure of having such a figure of heavenly beauty such as myself walk beside your unworthy form. You should count your blessing Third and be thankful for such a gift." that smile she wore only got wider of course during the course of that bit of self flattery, enhancing an already enticing visage.

Wisely I kept my mouth shut though and continued on in silence. A happy Asuka was a safe Asuka. And with her new training it was better to have the German girl appeased at all times.

Four weeks had passed since the incident at the Matsushiro Secondary Research Station and two since we had been off house arrest, much to the joy and relief of Asuka and Mistato. Having Rei and the red Devil in the same vicinity for any prolonged period of time was a special kind of trouble, one that our wayward Guardian was well aware of by then.

I had been meeting secretly with Maya-san, the new girl Mana and Devine briefly for about a week since then completing my 'training'. I spent as much time while I was there learning as much as I could about the Agents and the 'Old Matrix', as it was called, as I could while not over doing it and tipping Misato off.

Some part of me couldn't help but feel that the Major knew more than she let on. And my conversations with Dr. Akagi, who was still very shook up over the incident, further cemented my belief that it was Agents who attacked the facility. The sights she described couldn't have been anything else.

The only problem with the reports she, Misato and the few surviving employees there had was that there seemed to have been a second party involved in the attack who, from their accounts, had attacked the Agents as well.

But the feats they pulled were no less dramatic. I had spoken to Maya about it and she to Ms Trinity but they both conceded that none of their people had anything to do with it.

"It could have been one of the other captains but I doubt it." Devine had told me two days ago while she was explaining how the resistance had split into numerous factions after Second Impact for different reasons. They made a habit of keeping in touch but there was no true way to know what they were all up to.

All in all things were beginning to fall back into normality, if you didn't account for the empty chair in class 2A and the non-existent relationship between Asuka and the class rep, then yes, one could say that.

Oh, and also, somewhere along the way Asuka had 'let it slip' that she knew about the Matrix around Mana and eventually her, Rei, Hikari and even Kensuke had joined the people of Zion. I was still sorta shocked about that last part.

Apparently we weren't as quiet as we had believe in our covert conversations. That bastard Aida had even snuck to our apartment and listened in on us. I swear man, never dismiss a military fanatic at his element.

I mean, seriously...

In any case it did lead to some interesting conversations at lunch time, but I swore if the name Neo came up one more time, somebody was going to get hurt. You have no idea how annoying that was.

But presently...

"Perfect! This spot will do nicely." The location in question was located in a secluded park like area in the northern part the old city. There were far fewer people around than it usually would have been at this time back in the more populated areas, which was a plus.

Luckily the spot gave us a good amount of open, lush green space and a clear view on the only exit/entrance so we'd be fully aware long before any unwanted visitors were to turn up.

And with the early morning sun bearing overhead, the warm summer air compacted with our current and exceedingly amiable surroundings, I found it moderately easy to find a sense of peace, a sort of tranquil serenity permeate my over active, and strained of late, mentality and fatigued essence.

A rare something that I hadn't known for quite some time with Toji missing and forced in the company of Asuka and Rei this past month. I mean living with two gorgeous women was one thing. Misato was like an older sister and or mother, but living with three gorgeous women, women who didn't all get along, who tended to argue, hand extensive weapons training, potential military pardons handy and at their disposal was a study of the true insanity a uterus tends to bring out in ones self.

I sincerely doubt that I'd ever actually get a date with such line of thinking, but you have not seen nor heard, nor been through what I have in the last month. The brief and awkward shower scenes and the numerous scantily clad females requesting my attention could not compete with the rest of it.

Others would probably say different, but they didn't have to work with these people on a day to day basis.

I felt more than slightly disappointed with the knowledge that I would probably never end up here again considering that we were truthfully still lost with no direction or idea of our whereabouts, adrift and astray some unknown number of miles away from Misato's apartment and the several odd measure of blocks behind or ahead of the franticly pursuing Section 2 agents Asuka and I had ditched some ways back, who were probably well aware of what the Major would do to them if she found out that the Children had been lost under their watch.

No doubt she would have words to say with us when we returned as well about our 'little disappearing act'. But a little time out from under the closely guarded and carefully reporting eyes of our sentries would be well worth the chewing out our asses were mostly likely going to receive.

Though I would have to say that the whole situation might have been more appreciable if it hadn't been for my foreign companion's insistent and quite persistent demands.

"Come... on Ikari. You aren't going to save the world acting like that, now quit stalling and puttem up." she punctuated her slang with a raised fist, sliding smoothly into a firm fighting stance.

"And why are we doing this again?" I had to inquire for the third occasion, not really understanding the point to wasting such a beautiful day in such a manner.

"If I have to tell you one more time, I swear to you Shinji I'm going to hurt you, now puttem up."

"Fine, fine. I can't believe you dragged me out of the house just so you could challenge me to a fight." planting the appropriate foot forward and setting my self accordingly I readied my psyche for a battle. Something that I knew the fiery spirit before me would surely bring.

"And who said you were a challenge? I just needed someone to test my skills on. There's never any time to go against that American, and the Kirishima girl is useless."

"Why does she have to be 'that American'? Why can't you call Devine by her name?"

"Please... Stooge. It's pure principle." Of course this was said with her hands on her hips, head held high, the mid morning sun shinning above her shoulder in a majestic pose of breathtaking haughtiness.

"What principle?" I countered, wondering what the hell she was talking about. Though truthfully, this was something I had given up on finding out a month or two after she arrived in the city.

For a second there her face scrunched up in a weird way and she looked at me like she was slightly hurt. But what for, I couldn't tell. It wasn't like I offended her or anything.

But all I received as an answer was a sly comment about how it was the one that was going to get me my ass kicked before the steaming lithe form of my UN sanctioned, German trained, war machine co-pilot's flying fist initiated our sparing match with all the zeal and passion of her famed Unit 02.

/AN: Somehow this turned into a part three so I have to split it up again. I still haven't been able to get to the scene I want without a few more pages to explain things. But I will get there one way or the other. This is the crossroads where Eva gets off and the Matrix gets on. I still intend to merge them but it has to all fit and be explainable. Damnit why can't I just get to the fight scenes! I through that last one with Asuka and Shinji in out of spite since I couldn't do the one I wanted but I'll give the highlights of that one next round.

My computer is still lying on its death bed, but thank god for dual operating systems or I would have lost my mind. My job hunting seems to be coming to a close, 'thank you lord!' so updates my be sketchy.

... ha, like they weren't before. Anyway I've said enough. I've got to get back to watching Faftner and Yukikaze. Weird animes both, but cool note the less. Oh and stop by Evamade. org if you cats get the chance.And no that's not aplug... almost.

blah, blah, blah, blah...long live the smurfs,blah, blah...lawlesspriest hotmail . com

and yes Boss Ikari will be out soon! I promise!

/priest/


	13. like a cold reckoning Part 3

... yeah, so I'm late. It's not like you cats were actually expecting a timely update anyway right? I mean, have I not pointed out in nearly ever post just how much of a lazy bastard I am. But whatever. I'll try to keep things going faster if I can. My job might get in the way of that but I'll do my best.

/priest/

:the usuall disclaimer goes here. I own nothing but the story. the rights to Eva and the Matrix go to their respective owners.

/Welcome to the Real World/

- lawless priest -

0.13

He waited for him to make the corner before crossing the street, dodging the light traffic in his way. The scene felt as if it had been taken out of some seedy spy flick, the kind where the heroic sleuth crept about, catching brief glimpses of his prey while narrowly dodging numerous close calls along the way to save the world and his ultimate goal... getting the girl.

Shinji hated those old movies. He hated how cool the spy looked and how he knew that if it was him in that position he probably would have tripped over a lose stone and whack his head in front of the enemy guards or something, compromising the whole mission.

And he knew damn well that he would never get the girl. That was a definite given.

Of course lack of confidence was a subject the fourteen year old excelled in. So that line of thinking would not have been a surprise to anyone who knew him. But as he made his way around the bend in time to see 'his' objective enter a seemingly empty warehouse he couldn't help but wonder if his next move would lead him to the answers he sought or land him in a greater hell than the youth was prepared to deal with.

Inside himself, Shinji knew the truth of the moment, that he was most likely screwed in ways he didn't even know were possible until he found out about the Matrix, or it found him to be more exact. That the mecha pilot was walking into a trap was obvious, but the question was... whose trap was it?

So far his quest for the truth had tossed him about in a thousand different directions he hadn't wanted to go in and caused him to take countless chances he didn't want to take. But Shinji had to know. The addictive trap the Matrix presented demanded it.

In either case Toji was there, that was a fact. So he had to go in on the off chance that he could find out what had happened to him during his abduction and bring him back out alive.

So much had already happened in the troubling months since this crazy story began, too much to be in fact. There had been many times where the younger Ikari wished he could just forget any of it ever went down and just somehow go back to his old life. A life with no Nerv, no Angels, no Commander, no Agents and no Matrix.

But life had shown him repeatedly just how unlikely that was possible and how it wouldn't solve anything or lead him to the answers for his problems. And he seriously doubted the Agents would stop coming for him just because he refused to deal with it anymore.

And so the boy named Shinji, once the man called Neo, was left with a freighting choice that he knew he would end up making anyway. He was going to have to bite the bullet and face the devil in front of him before it consumed him first.

Standing there in that heat as cars carrying their respective families within; the children with wide smiles on their faces in the back seats, the men and women dressed professionally going to and from their jobs in the front, passed by him without a care. And without evoking it a brief bout of jealousy hit him like a rock, leaving a heavy lump in his throat as his blue eyes took in the contentment reflected in their eyes by the thin plane of glass separating the normality of their seemingly innocent lives from his own.

Shinji took one last fleeting look behind him, at the path he had given up and the life he would never know again. Bowing his head in a last moment of regret before turning away from that road, he took a deep breath and an unsteady step toward his new one only to bump into the person he had been searching for.

"Toji is that you?" Surprise was written plainly across the Eva Pilot's face while looking the stranger in front of him over.

It was obviously Suzuhara. Although seeing him in that all too familiar dark suit along with those dehumanizing sunglasses did throw Ikari off a bit. But apparently the true Baka like nature of his question entitled him to a free invitation to become more acquainted with the spiky haired youth's fist. Seeing as it smashed into Shinji's unprotected face and all, sending the boy's body flying into the busy traffic behind.

The steady ache in his face and back became more pronounce as his body bounced and skid across the pavement. All the while moving him progressively closer toward the speeding interchange he couldn't help but think to himself about how much he knew that today was going to suck, his fight with Asuka aside.

13.0 like a cold reckoning

/Part 3 ... the last part, I swear/

- 3 hours prior -

"Ow! God, that hurt." The bruise wasn't large but it wasn't miniscule either.

"Are you... ok?"

Stupid question really, but it's the one thing everyone asks in such situations in the honestly unbelievable hope that things weren't as bad as they seemed. Even when they know the replying answer will come out negative and most likely followed by a string of choice expletives.

"Do I look ok to you Stooge?"

See what I mean. Notice the amount of implied spite...

"Sorry... "

And of course they always come back with that response as if that one phrase will somehow make up for whatever action instigated the injury.

"Hold still. Oh come on, it's not like I did it on purpose..."

And then come the excuses...

"... hiss, ow, ow! Not so hard!"

"Sorry, sorry, but you need to hold still."

There's that apology again...

"Will you just shut up already? I heard you the first time!"

Apologies... they never solve anything. And the strained silence that followed was proof enough, leaving the summer air for the Katydids. Both of us simply content with staring in embarrassing silence in the other's opposite direction while we sat with our backs to an old willow tree.

"It's not like I actually hit you that hard..." I tried to say but my excuse sounded rather lame even to my own ears. She... well, she merely gave me a look, The Look to be exact.

You know the one... don't you?

Of course you do, yeah, that one, the one that does more than simply imply the threat of bodily harm if the current conversation does not engage in a profound and swift, which in other words indicates an immediate, alteration of subjects but also that the before mentioned bodily harm 'will' - notice the stress on will, be of the Lasting sorts. Once again notice the capitalization on lasting, signifying a greater stress level.

"Alright! Alright! I'll shut up, I'll shut up!"

...sigh. see, I told you, apologizing solves nothing.

It was noon by then and the sun blazed above uncontested by cloud cover as we sat there beneath the shade of the old tree.

And it was such a nice day too. But noooo... she had to go and ruin it. It wasn't my fault things turned out the way they did. I mean, hell, she really was kicking my butt in the beginning, her attacks coming out of the bloody ether while making contact with my thin frame like a scene from National Geographic of a lion leaping onto a hapless gazelle on the African plains, blood and guts ripped all a strew for all the world to see.

I swear I was a pathetic sight.

But what was I supposed to do, just stand there and let her wail on me? Come on... I was the One damnit! I couldn't go out like that.

Maybe in the past, but I had no skills back then. I still didn't like confrontations but I had already agreed to spare with her and I knew she would only have gotten angrier if I hadn't fought for real.

...sigh, how do I get myself in these situations? There were times where I just wished the brief appearances my spine made didn't have to land me it questionable circumstances with certain red heads and women in general.

It all started with that kick. No doubt there was going to be a bruise but I refused to touch it and let her know that she had gotten to me. But like I said, that had been the prompter that pioneered my descent into disaster.

I suppose that I was a little angry that she had actually gotten that one off. I could have sworn that I would be able to block it, but considering that I hadn't block any of its predecessors I probably should have taken that into account... but whatever!

She hit me... it hurt... and I got pissed.

Simple really.

And that smile she had on when it happened probably didn't help either and I was determined to wipe it off her pretty face one way or another.

Too bad I was too focused on thinking about putting her in her place to actually pay attention to the particular female I was talking about, resulting in my catching her other foot in the eye, spinning me around.

"Ahhh... did that hurt Third? I'm sorry. But don't worry, I've got something here that'll make it "alllll' better." Her sweet voice came to my addled brain with the promise of hidden vipers in the bushes.

And that something happened to be her fist, but just as she came to deliver her gift I came out of my daze and caught her with a trio of gut shots, throwing her offensive off balance enough for me to continue my attack while she was still in shock.

Of course this didn't last long. And so she was able to block my next few punches while she pressed forward with a low swipe followed by a high roundhouse.

But I ducked and jumped accordingly much to her disappointment.

There were taunts thrown about, words were said while feet met ribs, fist met chins and we both began to sweat in the summer heat.

But all good things come to an end right? Well if you could call beating and getting beat up by a girl you secretly had a crush on a good thing.

In any case I guess you could say it was her own fault. There she'd been, standing there, her face flushed with exertion, her eyes shinning brightly with a fierceness as they locked on to my own while the nearly non-existent wind blew a few of her wet tresses away from her face.

The young German held herself in a new stance that I wasn't aware of, simply standing there, carefully following my every move.

It might have been the heat or a combination of the two, but I still blame it on her. To say the least she had me in a daze. And a weird one at that. One I could seem to get out of which her current position wasn't helping to alter.

I mean, there she stood. With her outfight clinging to her shapely frame as drops of sweat slid slowly from her matted hair down her perfectly tan skin, only to pause for about a second or two before finally falling from her chin to land with a splat barely audible to human ears. Yet somehow I was able to catch it all in the vivid detail of an anime frantic about to catch some hell for not paying enough attention to the people around whose favorite anime he was bashing.

But it was in that moment that it happened. One moment I was admiring the determination of my roommate and fellow pilot and the next I was staring at the sweat matted face of an older black haired woman in a similar position with a fierceness greater or equal to that of young girl I had been fighting.

"Trinity...?" It was more of whisper, but what robed me of my movement was the fact that it wasn't my voice that spoke it.

"Stop your mumbling and fight me." The German's cry crashed through my hallucination but the foot she had aiming for my face didn't brake me out of my stupor.

A shame she never landed that attack. It might have changed the outcome for both of us later but that was not to be and as her leg came close enough, my body moved on automatic, catching her shin and flipping her in the air and on her back.

"Ow! Damnit ow! God that hurt." It was her cry that brought me back, forcing me back to the here and now.

"Oh, Asuka... I, I... I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I just... and you... and then..."

Asuka didn't grace me with answer, which wasn't a good sign. It was her hand, she had come down on it during her fall.

I was immediately on my knees and by her side checking her hand. Instinct you know...

"Hey what do you think you're..." she started with a nervous timbre in her voice. Something I had never heard from her before.

"Good, its not broken I don't think, so you should be ok." it wasn't that I didn't notice the way she narrowed her eyes at the way I just brushed past what she was saying, I was simply more concerned about her injury to care much. And I suppose it was the coolly focused way I examined her hand that kept her from screaming at me.

"Ow! Damnit Shinji!"

Ok... maybe I was wrong.

/WRW/

It was some time later and we were some distance away. Our walk was filled with birdcalls and the general song of a tamed forest like park environment trapped like everything else in a fortress like city. And in the light of that it was no small wonder why neither of us pilots felt the pull to join in their little dance.

Our feet fell silently as we trod unhaltingly while their owners remained lost in our own troubled minds. The impromptu sparring match and the way it ended aside there where still a number of issues we hadn't been able to speak about let alone deal with. And had the sneaking suspicion that if left unsaid we only cause us more problems down the road.

But of course I was never the most conversational person in the world so it wasn't like I was expecting to somehow... I don't know, get her to just tell me everything. Hell, I'd be lucky if she didn't call me a baka and just write me off.

"Asuka ... um?" Wow, what an amazing start.

"What is it now Third?"

"Well... about your dreams..." My eyes easily caught the way my companion's whole body went rigid and I was wondering if this was the right topic to begin with but it lasted only a moment. One simple second and she was as she had been before, indifferent as a hippo was to a mosquito trying to achieve its life long, more like day long dream of draining that fat mother lover of its precious life sustaining substance dry.

"What about them?" Her voice was even and dry. A little too much in fact, but I pressed on anyways. Knowing she'd only be angrier with me if I gave up now.

"I just... I don't understand why you would be dreaming about Neo, that's all? I thought I was the One. I mean I not trying to say that I'm special or anything or that you're not. It's just... I just don't understand why are you and Hikari having these dreams too. I thought they were just my problem."

She didn't say anything for awhile, simply walking in quiet speculation.

"So, which is it?" She said in return after some time of leaving me in reflective silence, not even bothering to answer my question as was her want to do.

"Is this really the real world, or the Matrix, is there really no Zion and I'm not talking about that old warehouse with Kirishima and the American, Ikari. What happened to that old place beneath the surface? Did any of it every exist? I mean, what the hell is the truth? Is any of it real?

"What do you mean? Why are you asking me this now? I told you everything that I know."

"No, you told me everything that they told you, but is it true? You're the One! Shouldn't you know what's real and what's not? What is the truth Shinji?"

"Depends on you definition of the..."

"Don't bullshit me you bastard! Just answer the fucking question! What the hell is the Matrix and how the hell do I get out of it?"

"Asuka I..."

"This makes no sense. How am I suppose to find out if the life I've been living up until now has any meaning? Am I even real? I could be, hell we all could be a bloody machi..."

"No!" I cut her off. I refused to even consider that possibility. The memories of my past life wouldn't allow me to accept that as truth. Not after all that I had seen them do in the past. I just couldn't believe that I could be one of them.

'Ah... what's wrong... can't say it can you? Too afraid to let it sink in that you might be or do you just want to continue deluding yourself?'

'Shut up.' I screamed at the nagging little voice in the back of my head with my father's deep voice.

'Pathetic Third Child. And you're supposed to be the One.'

'I said shut up!'

"Why can't we just have a normal life? Why does it always have to involve war and death and us struggling to survive?" Asuka was saying while I was trying to deal with my overactive conscience. Inside I was rather surprised to hear that kind of talk from my German roommate who had always claimed to be the strongest woman alive. Who could weather any enemy, but just like that day back when she had first cornered me about the Matrix I could see her armour cracking.

Yet truthfully I couldn't really say thing at the time anyway. I had no answers to any of her questions. Was this world real or was I being lied to again? I remember hating her at that moment for putting the doubt back in my head. Before then I had plenty of questions and only a few solid answers to base my life on but after that day in the park with her I found myself sliding down a path that would become far more familiar as time went by.

One that would lead us all down a road that none of us, from Zion or Nerv was prepared to take. But at that time the surly looking individuals gathering around us crushed any thought of finding the Truth.

"Asuka." I warned as the strangers got closer.

"I see them Third. Get ready." Her voice was hard and emotionless, our conversation clearly forgotten and any evidence of her outburst had been erased from her expression as if it had never been.

We were surrounded and our odds weren't looking good. My intuition proved true but a formless figure of speech wasn't going to save us no matter how much I prayed for it. The men were obviously not Section two and their flashy expensive dress seemed to give them a Yakuza appeal. Nobody were suits that costly without making money off the backs of others.

Asuka, my fearless Angel slaying comrade, caught my eye and gave me a quick look, one that I knew well. It had been decided. We weren't going out without a fight. As if I was expecting anything less from her.

"Just like with the seventh, Third."

"Gotcha. And hey. Try to stay off my feet this time, eh?"

"Screw you Ikari! You know you were the one who screwed up our landing!"

I merely smiled. She was still in denial it seemed even after all this time.

"Sorry to interrupt..." one of them was saying

"So why are you?" Asuka broke in before he could finish.

The speaker snorted before continuing. "Like I was saying, we're working on a rather tight time frame here, so one way or another... you two little kiddies are going to be coming with us.

"Is that right?" She replied back, sarcasm dripping between the pauses of each word.

"Ahhh and I had all of these appointments lined up for today. But with the way this are going I just don't think I'll have extra time to spare. Well, what a shame, what a shame but I'm going to have to decline your weak little offer. I don't deal with boring little boys."

"Boring little boys, eh?" One of the others to side the said. It was obvious he found her statement amusing. All of them had to be close to twice our ages and four times our number.

"Ha, ha, well doesn't she have a mouth on her?"

"Yeah, and a cute one too. Foreign girls are the best."

"I know what you mean. All that attitude they throw around like they own the world is great when you get them in bed, especially the young ones. They're always so feisty."

"She looks pretty feisty to me."

Of course by this time my eyes were narrowed to slits. My heart pumping more blood through my veins than necessary while my mind was swimming in maddening loops, constantly thinking and throwing away possible strategies to deal with these scum. And by deal with of course I was referring to ripping their useless hides into as many pieces as was humanly and inhumanly possible.

How dare they even believe they had to right to even look at her let alone speak to her like that? I didn't matter though because I was going to take them out anyway.

"Enough talk!" I yelled, which only made the scum smile to themselves, thinking my spunk was just a joke.

"Right, let's do this." one of them said.

And as one they all gave this evil smirk with what looked like fangs peeking out their hungry lips. The demented look in their eyes only added to the picture. And then, the weirdest thing happened. The bastards grew elongated claws from their hands and the next thing I knew they were attacking.

I barely dodged a swipe from one of their fists. I'm not sure which one, there being so many of them crowded around me. I lost sight of Asuka quickly as I was forced to trade blows from one attacker to the next.

Someone must have gotten me with a lucky shot in the mist of it all because I suddenly found myself landing hard on the ground. Never even got the chance to pick myself up before one of their booted feet caught me in the gut and lifted me clean into the air and into the waiting fist of another of the goons.

If you've ever been kicked in the ribs b a a steel toed size 11 boot then you personally know the pain I was in at that moment. The rest of you can only dream of it and I can tell you right now that you just don't know how lucky you are.

And the situation only got worse after that. My earlier determination must have gotten caught stuck somewhere between who's ever it was fist who pounded my face and whatever I used to have in my jaw.

Before I even hit the ground they began to stump the life out of me. Their heavy feet pounding repeatedly on my small frame, leaving bruises and bloody wounds everywhere they landed. It was obvious that I wouldn't be able to take much more of this, but I couldn't find a way to get to my feet with them surrounding me on all sides. I was going to have to do something and quick.

To tell you the truth I had more or less forgotten about Asuka, that is until I heard her agonizingly loud scream of pain. They had gotten between the two of us right from the start so we couldn't stand together and use our sync training. It was doubtful that they knew of it, but the result was the same.

So there I lay, being beaten while somewhere, probably not ten feet from me those devils could have been doing anything they wanted to my friend. And you know how the mind works; throwing all of your worst nightmares at you, slamming your psyche with all the hatefully and absurdly painful images that your fear could create. Then blinding you with the one simple fact that you really didn't know what was going on over there and any one of the terrible things your mind had tortured you with could very well be happening that very moment.

And that was something that I just could not take. Asuka was my friend, my comrade, someone who understood Eva, someone who understood the Matrix... who understood me... I couldn't let it end like this, I couldn't... I couldn't, I... I wouldn't!

In the mist of all of this my mind had long since ceased recognizing the pain my body was supposedly receiving. The truth of the matter was it didn't matter what was going on. The fact that the fools standing over me were blocking my way to Asuka was the only thing that really concerned me.

That little problem would have to be corrected and the green tinted code encompassing my vision was sure to help in that regard. Once again I remember having another strangely detached thought as how accustomed I was becoming to the true nature of the Matrix and my ability to see it. But I didn't deal on that long. I had work to do.

I'm sure it most have surprised to them when I suddenly caught the foot that was aimed for my face and broken it in several places just as quickly. Then my left foot shot out at blinding speeds and embedded itself in the lower region of the fool to my right, clearly catching him off guard only to jack knife him immediately into the fool across from him to my left, sending both of the flying back.

The others jumped a step back so as not to get hit, giving me the room I needed to spin myself to my feet. I supposed that would have been the moment to give some kind of hero like martial arts pose to signal that I was about to seriously quick their asses, but I didn't have time for such bullshit.

My fist zeroed in and slammed into the nearest grill I could find with the all the weight of a speeding truck, crushing it while sending the owner several feet away from the fight. Another one of them decided that jumping in while I was occupied was the thing to do. He came at me with his claws out and ready to strike but that didn't stop him from catching my elbow in his throat.

And of course I couldn't just leave him there to choke alone in obvious pain. So I helped him to a healthy serving of my rage with a vertical back hand, several shots to his chest, ribs and stomach and a full serving of my sneakers to elevate his illness. You should have seen the gratitude written on his face. I did that man a great favor. And he didn't even have to pay me back. Aren't I a nice guy?

The last three goons must have felt jealous because they immediately ran in with these huge grins on their faces. Hell they were actually beginning to foam at the mouth they were so excited. Who was I to deny them their pleasure?

So why should they have to wait?

Running towards the speeding rabid like hounds, I did a forward flip to gain momentum, a cartwheel and then right as they were about to reach me, I leapt into the air, spinning so I was able to catch one with a rotating kick and then slammed my body into the last two.

We each flipped or rolled out from that and ran in to attack. I had to dodge a canine like bite from one of the bastards while punching another in his solar pollex behind me and kicking the last with a body shot.

Not giving them time to react I jumped in the air with a flying roundhouse kick to the punk who wanted to bite me and followed with a number of speeding punches to his unprotected head as he was going down.

His body hit the ground at the exact moment I uppercutted the guy to my right and finished him with another flying roundhouse kick.

I embedded my elbow in the last fool's throat as well, then backhanded him in the face with the same hand and then ending him with a tremendous punch to the face that was on par with a category five hurricane.

Now free of nearby fools I wasted no time in racing for the luckless beasts surrounding my Asuka.

And no I didn't realize that I had called her that to myself until much later. But right then I was only concerned with ripping my enemies to shreds. My fight had only lasted mere seconds but it seemed like hours since I had hit the ground and been stomped. And ever step towards my roommate seemed to take forever as well. I remember having the feeling that I was going to be too late, making me nauseous. And I could feel the acid taste of bile on my tongue.

But I finally reached them with determination burning in my chest.

I sigh when I say that the first guy I hit didn't even see me coming. He was too occupied with the show his friends were giving to notice my entrance. Of course the flying fool who rammed into the main performer sorta got all of their attentions, but I wasn't through.

If it hasn't been noted already, I happened to be a fan of the spinning roundhouse. So the ones I gave the first three bastards shouldn't have been much of a surprise, to them maybe it was, but to you, probably not. In any case, I was too much into whipping that ass to care if I was repeating my moves.

Screw originality, I had faces to drill. Like the angry, snarling punk who ran at me with his head down, probably thinking he was going to tackle me to the ground. I quickly thought about doing a spin off his back and going from there. But I was in a hurry so I just kicked him in his jaw, somehow completely stopping his momentum and ended him with a side kick to the ribs, no doubt shattering a few of those, to get him out of my way.

That left only three men left and as they moved to surround me I was finally able to get a view of what had become of Asuka.

And then... as my face registered my shock, my left eye gaining a nervous twitch while my hands clenched and unclenched at my side, the world went red and that nice, peaceful, clean summer setting lost much of its pureness that day.

/AN: I told someone a while back, 'who's partly responsible for this chapter even being written' that I was thinking of letting this story go. But I just let things hang. I saw the first two movies awhile backI and guess you could say that I gained my inspiration back again, but only to lose it due to an abundance of work. Luckly I found a few interresting stories to read which forced me to remember why I started writting in the first place. ...so here we are again. Hopefully I'll actually be able to update my other stories soon. Who knows. the writter's block I'm having for BI is still kicking my ass.

Anyway... this story should be picking up with more bull and plenty of fights for the Eva crew to have to put with.But I wouldn't have it any other way. You can email a brother if you have any questions or request. It'll probably get me to update faster than anything else.

/priest/


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